arXiv subjects

Shirley Ho

Publications and source records attributed to Shirley Ho.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

On the improvement of cosmological neutrino mass bounds

The most recent measurements of the temperature and low-multipole polarization anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from the Planck satellite, when combined with galaxy clustering data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) in the form of the full shape of the power spectrum, and with Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements, provide a $95\%$ confidence level (CL) upper bound on the sum of the three active neutrinos $\sum m _ν< 0.183$ eV, among the tightest neutrino mass bounds in the literature, to date, when the same datasets are taken into account. This very same data combination is able to set, at $\sim70\%$ CL, an upper limit on $\sum m _ν$ of $0.0968$ eV, a value that approximately corresponds to the minimal mass expected in the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy scenario. If high-multipole polarization data from Planck is also considered, the $95\%$ CL upper bound is tightened to $\sum m _ν< 0.176$ eV. Further improvements are obtained by considering recent measurements of the Hubble parameter. These limits are obtained assuming a specific non-degenerate neutrino mass spectrum; they slightly worsen when considering other degenerate neutrino mass schemes. Current cosmological data, therefore, start to be mildly sensitive to the neutrino mass ordering. Low-redshift quantities, such as the Hubble constant or the reionization optical depth, play a very important role when setting the neutrino mass constraints. We also comment on the eventual shifts in the cosmological bounds on $\sum m_ν$ when possible variations in the former two quantities are addressed.

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arXiv2016

The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the correlation function of LOWZ and CMASS galaxies in Data Release 12

We present distance scale measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillation signal in the CMASS and LOWZ samples from the Data Release 12 of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The total volume probed is 14.5 Gpc$^3$, a 10 per cent increment from Data Release 11. From an analysis of the spherically averaged correlation function, we infer a distance to $z=0.57$ of $D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_ {\rm d}=2028\pm21$ Mpc and a distance to $z=0.32$ of $D_V(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d}=1264\pm22$ Mpc assuming a cosmology in which $r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}=147.10$ Mpc. From the anisotropic analysis, we find an angular diameter distance to $z=0.57$ of $D_{\rm A}(z)r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}/r_{\rm d}=1401\pm21$ Mpc and a distance to $z=0.32$ of $981\pm20$ Mpc, a 1.5 per cent and 2.0 per cent measurement respectively. The Hubble parameter at $z=0.57$ is $H(z)r_{\rm d}/r^{\rm fid}_{\rm d}=100.3\pm3.7$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and its value at $z=0.32$ is $79.2\pm5.6$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, a 3.7 per cent and 7.1 per cent measurement respectively. These cosmic distance scale constraints are in excellent agreement with a $Λ$CDM model with cosmological parameters released by the recent Planck 2015 results.

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arXiv2016

The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Overview and Early Data

The Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) will conduct novel cosmological observations using the BOSS spectrograph at Apache Point Observatory. Observations will be simultaneous with the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) designed for variability studies and the Spectroscopic Identification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS) program designed for studies of X-ray sources. eBOSS will use four different tracers to measure the distance-redshift relation with baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). Using more than 250,000 new, spectroscopically confirmed luminous red galaxies at a median redshift z=0.72, we project that eBOSS will yield measurements of $d_A(z)$ to an accuracy of 1.2% and measurements of H(z) to 2.1% when combined with the z>0.6 sample of BOSS galaxies. With ~195,000 new emission line galaxy redshifts, we expect BAO measurements of $d_A(z)$ to an accuracy of 3.1% and H(z) to 4.7% at an effective redshift of z= 0.87. A sample of more than 500,000 spectroscopically-confirmed quasars will provide the first BAO distance measurements over the redshift range 0.9 2.1; these new data will enhance the precision of $d_A(z)$ and H(z) by a factor of 1.44 relative to BOSS. Furthermore, eBOSS will provide improved tests of General Relativity on cosmological scales through redshift-space distortion measurements, improved tests for non-Gaussianity in the primordial density field, and new constraints on the summed mass of all neutrino species. Here, we provide an overview of the cosmological goals, spectroscopic target sample, demonstration of spectral quality from early data, and projected cosmological constraints from eBOSS.

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arXiv2015

MApping the Most Massive Overdensities Through Hydrogen (MAMMOTH) I: Methodology

Modern cosmology predicts that a galaxy overdensity is associated to a large reservoir of the intergalactic gas, which can be traced by the Ly$α$ forest absorption. We have undertaken a systematic study of the relation between Coherently Strong intergalactic Ly$α$ Absorption systems (CoSLAs), which have highest optical depth ($τ$) in $τ$ distribution, and mass overdensities on the scales of $\sim$ 10 - 20 $h^{-1}$ comoving Mpc. On such large scales, our cosmological simulations show a strong correlation between the effective optical depth ($τ_{\rm{eff}}$) of the CoSLAs and the 3-D mass overdensities. In moderate signal-to-noise spectra, however, the profiles of CoSLAs can be confused with high column density absorbers. For $z>2.6$, where the corresponding Ly$β$ is redshifted to the optical, we have developed the technique to differentiate between these two alternatives. We have applied this technique to SDSS-III quasar survey at $z = 2.6$ - 3.3, and we present a sample of five CoSLA candidates with $τ_{\rm{eff}}$ on 15 $h^{-1}$ Mpc greater than $4.5\times$ the mean optical depth. At lower redshifts of $z < 2.6$, where the background quasar density is higher, the overdensity can be traced by intergalactic absorption groups using multiple sight lines. Our overdensity searches fully utilize the current and next generation of Ly$α$ forest surveys which cover a survey volume of $> (1\ h^{-1}$ Gpc)$^3$. In addition, systems traced by CoSLAs will build a uniform sample of the most massive overdensities at $z > 2$ to constrain the models of structure formation, and offer a unique laboratory to study the interactions between galaxy overdensities and the intergalactic medium.

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arXiv2015

The large-scale 3-point correlation function of the SDSS BOSS DR12 CMASS galaxies

We report a measurement of the large-scale 3-point correlation function of galaxies using the largest dataset for this purpose to date, 777, 202 Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS BOSS) DR12 CMASS sample. This work exploits the novel algorithm of Slepian & Eisenstein (2015b) to compute the multipole moments of the 3PCF in $\mathcal{O}(N^2)$ time, with $N$ the number of galaxies. Leading-order perturbation theory models the data well in a compressed basis where one triangle side is integrated out. We also present an accurate and computationally efficient means of estimating the covariance matrix. With these techniques the redshift-space linear and non-linear bias are measured, with 2.6% precision on the former if $σ_8$ is fixed. The data also indicates a $2.8σ$ preference for the BAO, confirming the presence of BAO in the 3-point function.

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arXiv2015

Mock Quasar-Lyman-α Forest Data-sets for the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We describe mock data-sets generated to simulate the high-redshift quasar sample in Data Release 11 (DR11) of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The mock spectra contain Lyα forest correlations useful for studying the 3D correlation function including Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). They also include astrophysical effects such as quasar continuum diversity and high-density absorbers, instrumental effects such as noise and spectral resolution, as well as imperfections introduced by the SDSS pipeline treatment of the raw data. The Lyα forest BAO analysis of the BOSS collaboration, described in Delubac et al. 2014, has used these mock data-sets to develop and cross-check analysis procedures prior to performing the BAO analysis on real data, and for continued systematic cross checks. Tests presented here show that the simulations reproduce sufficiently well important characteristics of real spectra. These mock data-sets will be made available together with the data at the time of the Data Release 11.

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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

SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 12: galaxy target selection and large scale structure catalogues

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III project, has provided the largest survey of galaxy redshifts available to date, in terms of both the number of galaxy redshifts measured by a single survey, and the effective cosmological volume covered. Key to analysing the clustering of these data to provide cosmological measurements is understanding the detailed properties of this sample. Potential issues include variations in the target catalogue caused by changes either in the targeting algorithm or properties of the data used, the pattern of spectroscopic observations, the spatial distribution of targets for which redshifts were not obtained, and variations in the target sky density due to observational systematics. We document here the target selection algorithms used to create the galaxy samples that comprise BOSS. We also present the algorithms used to create large scale structure catalogues for the final Data Release (DR12) samples and the associated random catalogues that quantify the survey mask. The algorithms are an evolution of those used by the BOSS team to construct catalogues from earlier data, and have been designed to accurately quantify the galaxy sample. The code used, designated MKSAMPLE, is released with this paper.

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arXiv2015

Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements

We derive constraints on cosmological parameters and tests of dark energy models from the combination of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and Type Ia supernova (SN) data. We take advantage of high-precision BAO measurements from galaxy clustering and the Ly-alpha forest (LyaF) in the BOSS survey of SDSS-III. BAO data alone yield a high confidence detection of dark energy, and in combination with the CMB angular acoustic scale they further imply a nearly flat universe. Combining BAO and SN data into an "inverse distance ladder" yields a 1.7% measurement of $H_0=67.3 \pm1.1$ km/s/Mpc. This measurement assumes standard pre-recombination physics but is insensitive to assumptions about dark energy or space curvature, so agreement with CMB-based estimates that assume a flat LCDM cosmology is an important corroboration of this minimal cosmological model. For open LCDM, our BAO+SN+CMB combination yields $Ω_m=0.301 \pm 0.008$ and curvature $Ω_k=-0.003 \pm 0.003$. When we allow more general forms of evolving dark energy, the BAO+SN+CMB parameter constraints remain consistent with flat LCDM. While the overall $χ^2$ of model fits is satisfactory, the LyaF BAO measurements are in moderate (2-2.5 sigma) tension with model predictions. Models with early dark energy that tracks the dominant energy component at high redshifts remain consistent with our constraints. Expansion history alone yields an upper limit of 0.56 eV on the summed mass of neutrino species, improving to 0.26 eV if we include Planck CMB lensing. Standard dark energy models constrained by our data predict a level of matter clustering that is high compared to most, but not all, observational estimates. (Abridged)

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arXiv2015

Large Covariance Matrices: Smooth Models from the 2-Point Correlation Function

We introduce a new method for estimating the covariance matrix for the galaxy correlation function in surveys of large-scale structure. Our method combines simple theoretical results with a realistic characterization of the survey to dramatically reduce noise in the covariance matrix. For example, with an investment of only ~1,000 CPU hours we can produce a model covariance matrix with noise levels that would otherwise require ~35,000 mocks. Non-Gaussian contributions to the model are calibrated against mock catalogs, after which the model covariance is found to be in impressive agreement with the mock covariance matrix. Since calibration of this method requires fewer mocks than brute force approaches, we believe that it could dramatically reduce the number of mocks required to analyse future surveys.

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arXiv2015

Testing deviations from $Λ$CDM with growth rate measurements from 6 Large Scale Structure Surveys at $\mathbf{z=0.06}$ to 1

We use measurements from the Planck satellite mission and galaxy redshift surveys over the last decade to test three of the basic assumptions of the standard model of cosmology, $Λ$CDM: the spatial curvature of the universe, the nature of dark energy and the laws of gravity on large scales. We obtain improved constraints on several scenarios that violate one or more of these assumptions. We measure $w_0=-0.94\pm0.17$ (18\% measurement) and $1+w_a=1.16\pm0.36$ (31\% measurement) for models with a time-dependent equation of state, which is an improvement over current best constraints \citep{Aubourg2014}. In the context of modified gravity, we consider popular scalar tensor models as well as a parametrization of the growth factor. In the case of one-parameter $f(R)$ gravity models with a $Λ$CDM background, we constrain $B_0 < 1.36 \times 10^{-5} $ (1$σ$ C.L.), which is an improvement by a factor of 4 on the current best \citep{XU2015}. We provide the very first constraint on the coupling parameters of general scalar-tensor theory and stringent constraint on the only free coupling parameter of Chameleon models. We also derive constraints on extended Chameleon models, improving the constraint on the coupling by a factor of 6 on the current best \citep{Hojjati2011} . We also measure $γ= 0.612 \pm 0.072$ (11.7\% measurement) for growth index parametrization. We improve all the current constraints by combining results from various galaxy redshift surveys in a coherent way, which includes a careful treatment of scale-dependence introduced by modified gravity.

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arXiv2015

Cosmic Web Reconstruction through Density Ridges: Catalogue

We construct a catalogue for filaments using a novel approach called SCMS (subspace constrained mean shift; Ozertem & Erdogmus 2011; Chen et al. 2015). SCMS is a gradient-based method that detects filaments through density ridges (smooth curves tracing high-density regions). A great advantage of SCMS is its uncertainty measure, which allows an evaluation of the errors for the detected filaments. To detect filaments, we use data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which consist of three galaxy samples: the NYU main galaxy sample (MGS), the LOWZ sample and the CMASS sample. Each of the three dataset covers different redshift regions so that the combined sample allows detection of filaments up to z = 0.7. Our filament catalogue consists of a sequence of two-dimensional filament maps at different redshifts that provide several useful statistics on the evolution cosmic web. To construct the maps, we select spectroscopically confirmed galaxies within 0.050 < z < 0.700 and partition them into 130 bins. For each bin, we ignore the redshift, treating the galaxy observations as a 2-D data and detect filaments using SCMS. The filament catalogue consists of 130 individual 2-D filament maps, and each map comprises points on the detected filaments that describe the filamentary structures at a particular redshift. We also apply our filament catalogue to investigate galaxy luminosity and its relation with distance to filament. Using a volume-limited sample, we find strong evidence (6.1$σ$ - 12.3$σ$) that galaxies close to filaments are generally brighter than those at significant distance from filaments.

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arXiv2015

Testing General Relativity with Growth rate measurement from Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Baryon Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey galaxies

The measured redshift ($z$) of an astronomical object is a combination of Hubble recession, gravitational redshift and peculiar velocity. The line of sight distance to a galaxy inferred from redshift is affected by the peculiar velocity component of galaxy redshift, which is observed as an anisotropy in the correlation function. This anisotropy allows us to measure the linear growth rate of matter ($fσ_8$). We measure the $fσ_8$ at $z=0.57$ using the CMASS sample from Data Release 11 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III) Baryon Oscillations Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). The galaxy sample consists of 690,826 massive galaxies in the redshift range 0.43-0.7 covering 8498 deg$^2$. Here we report the first simultaneous measurement of $fσ_8$ and background cosmological parameters using Convolution Lagrangian Perturbation Theory (CLPT) with Gaussian streaming model (GSRSD). We arrive at a constraint of $fσ_8=0.462\pm0.041$ (9\% accuracy) at effective redshift ($\bar{z}=0.57$) when we include Planck CMB likelihood while marginalizing over all other cosmological parameters. We also measure $bσ_8=1.19\pm0.03$, $H(z=0.57)=89.2\pm3.6$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and $D_A(z=0.57)=1401\pm23$ Mpc. Our analysis also improves the constraint on $Ω_c h^2=0.1196\pm0.0009$ by a factor of 3 when compared to the Planck only measurement($Ω_c h^2=0.1196 \pm 0.0031$). Our results are consistent with Planck $Λ$CDM-GR prediction and all other CMASS measurements, even though our theoretical models are fairly different. This consistency suggests that measurement of $fσ_8$ from Redshift space distortions at multiple redshifts will be a sensitive probe of the theory of gravity that is largely model independent, allowing us to place model-independent constraints on alternative models of gravity.

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arXiv2015

Cosmic Web Reconstruction through Density Ridges: Method and Algorithm

The detection and characterization of filamentary structures in the cosmic web allows cosmologists to constrain parameters that dictates the evolution of the Universe. While many filament estimators have been proposed, they generally lack estimates of uncertainty, reducing their inferential power. In this paper, we demonstrate how one may apply the Subspace Constrained Mean Shift (SCMS) algorithm (Ozertem and Erdogmus (2011); Genovese et al. (2012)) to uncover filamentary structure in galaxy data. The SCMS algorithm is a gradient ascent method that models filaments as density ridges, one-dimensional smooth curves that trace high-density regions within the point cloud. We also demonstrate how augmenting the SCMS algorithm with bootstrap-based methods of uncertainty estimation allows one to place uncertainty bands around putative filaments. We apply the SCMS method to datasets sampled from the P3M N-body simulation, with galaxy number densities consistent with SDSS and WFIRST-AFTA and to LOWZ and CMASS data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). To further assess the efficacy of SCMS, we compare the relative locations of BOSS filaments with galaxy clusters in the redMaPPer catalog, and find that redMaPPer clusters are significantly closer (with p-values $< 10^{-9}$) to SCMS-detected filaments than to randomly selected galaxies.

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arXiv2015

Luminosity function of [OII] emission-line galaxies in the MassiveBlack-II simulation

We examine the luminosity function (LF) of [OII] emission-line galaxies in the high-resolution cosmological simulation MassiveBlack-II (MBII). From the spectral energy distribution of each galaxy, we select a sub-sample of star-forming galaxies at $0.06 \le z \le 3.0$ using the [OII] emission line luminosity L([OII]). We confirm that the specific star formation rate matches that in the GAMA survey. We show that the [OII] LF at z=1.0 from the MBII shows a good agreement with the LFs from several surveys below L([OII])=$10^{43.0}$ erg/s while the low redshifts ($z \le 0.3$) show an excess in the prediction of bright [OII] galaxies, but still displaying a good match with observations below L([OII])=$10^{41.6}$ erg/s. Based on the validity in reproducing the properties of [OII] galaxies at low redshift ($z \le 1$), we forecast the evolution of the [OII] LF at high redshift ($z \le 3$), which can be tested by upcoming surveys such as the HETDEX and DESI. The slopes of the LFs at bright and faint ends range from -3 to -2 showing minima at z=2. The slope of the bright end evolves approximately as 1/(z+1) at z=2 while the faint end evolves as ~3/(z+1) at $0.6 \le z \le 2$. In addition, a similar analysis is applied for the evolution of [OIII] LFs, which is to be explored in the forthcoming survey WFIRST-AFTA. Finally, we show that the auto-correlation function of [OII] and [OIII] emitting galaxies shows a rapid evolution from z=2 to 1.

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arXiv2015

The SDSS-IV extended Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Luminous Red Galaxy Target Selection

We describe the algorithm used to select the Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) sample for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) using photometric data from both the SDSS and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). LRG targets are required to meet a set of color selection criteria and have z-band and i-band MODEL magnitudes z < 19.95 and 19.9 < i < 21.8, respectively. Our algorithm selects roughly 50 LRG targets per square degree, the great majority of which lie in the redshift range 0.6 < z < 1.0 (median redshift 0.71). We demonstrate that our methods are highly effective at eliminating stellar contamination and lower-redshift galaxies. We perform a number of tests using spectroscopic data from SDSS-III/BOSS to determine the redshift reliability of our target selection and its ability to meet the science requirements of eBOSS. The SDSS spectra are of high enough signal-to-noise ratio that at least 89% of the target sample yields secure redshift measurements. We also present tests of the uniformity and homogeneity of the sample, demonstrating that it should be clean enough for studies of the large-scale structure of the universe at higher redshifts than SDSS-III/BOSS LRGs reached.

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arXiv2015

Investigating Galaxy-Filament Alignments in Hydrodynamic Simulations using Density Ridges

In this paper, we study the filamentary structures and the galaxy alignment along filaments at redshift $z=0.06$ in the MassiveBlack-II simulation, a state-of-the-art, high-resolution hydrodynamical cosmological simulation which includes stellar and AGN feedback in a volume of (100 Mpc$/h$)$^3$. The filaments are constructed using the subspace constrained mean shift (SCMS; Ozertem & Erdogmus (2011) and Chen et al. (2015a)). First, we show that reconstructed filaments using galaxies and reconstructed filaments using dark matter particles are similar to each other; over $50\%$ of the points on the galaxy filaments have a corresponding point on the dark matter filaments within distance $0.13$ Mpc$/h$ (and vice versa) and this distance is even smaller at high-density regions. Second, we observe the alignment of the major principal axis of a galaxy with respect to the orientation of its nearest filament and detect a $2.5$ Mpc$/h$ critical radius for filament's influence on the alignment when the subhalo mass of this galaxy is between $10^9M_\odot/h$ and $10^{12}M_\odot/h$. Moreover, we find the alignment signal to increase significantly with the subhalo mass. Third, when a galaxy is close to filaments (less than $0.25$ Mpc$/h$), the galaxy alignment toward the nearest galaxy group depends on the galaxy subhalo mass. Finally, we find that galaxies close to filaments or groups tend to be rounder than those away from filaments or groups.

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arXiv2015

Optimal Ridge Detection using Coverage Risk

We introduce the concept of coverage risk as an error measure for density ridge estimation. The coverage risk generalizes the mean integrated square error to set estimation. We propose two risk estimators for the coverage risk and we show that we can select tuning parameters by minimizing the estimated risk. We study the rate of convergence for coverage risk and prove consistency of the risk estimators. We apply our method to three simulated datasets and to cosmology data. In all the examples, the proposed method successfully recover the underlying density structure.

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