Engineering topics

Eisenstein, Daniel

Publications and source records attributed to Eisenstein, Daniel.

17 records

DOE OSTI2025

Measuring σ 8 using DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys Emission-Line galaxies and Planck CMB lensing, and the impact of dust on parameter inference

Measuring the growth of structure is a powerful probe for studying the dark sector, especially in light of the σ 8 tension between primary CMB anisotropy and low-redshift surveys. This paper provides a new measurement of the amplitude of the matter power spectrum, σ 8 , using galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-CMB lensing power spectra of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys Emission-Line Galaxies and the Planck 2018 CMB lensing map. We create an ELG catalog composed of 24 million galaxies and with a purity of 85%, covering a redshift range 0 < z < 3, with z mean = 1.09. We implement several novel systematic corrections, such as jointly modeling the contribution of imaging systematics and photometric redshift uncertainties to the covariance matrix. We also study the impacts of various dust maps on cosmological parameter inference. We measure the cross-power spectra over f sky = 0.25 with a signal-to-background ratio of up to 30σ. We find that the choice of dust maps to account for imaging systematics in estimating the ELG overdensity field has a significant impact on the final estimated values of σ 8 and Ω M , with far-infrared emission-based dust maps preferring σ 8 to be as low as 0.702 ± 0.030, and stellar-reddening-based dust maps preferring as high as 0.719 ± 0.030. The highest preferred value is at ∼ 3 σ tension with the Planck primary anisotropy results. These findings indicate a need for tomographic analyses at high redshifts and joint modeling of systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Detection of the large-scale tidal field with galaxy multiplet alignment in the DESI Y1 spectroscopic survey

We explore correlations between the orientations of small galaxy groups, or ‘multiplets’, and the large-scale gravitational tidal field. Using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Y1 survey, we detect the intrinsic alignment (IA) of multiplets to the galaxy-traced matter field out to separations of $100\,h^{-1}$ Mpc. Unlike traditional IA measurements of individual galaxies, this estimator is not limited by imaging of galaxy shapes and allows for direct IA detection beyond redshift $z=1$. Multiplet alignment is a form of higher order clustering, for which the scale-dependence traces the underlying tidal field and amplitude is a result of small-scale ($\lt 1h^{-1}$ Mpc) dynamics. Within samples of bright galaxies, luminous red galaxies (LRG) and emission-line galaxies, we find similar scale-dependence regardless of intrinsic luminosity or colour. This is promising for measuring tidal alignment in galaxy samples that typically display no IA. DESI’s LRG mock galaxy catalogues created from the A BACUS S UMMIT N -body simulations produce a similar alignment signal, though with a 33 per cent lower amplitude at all scales. An analytic model using a non-linear power spectrum (NLA) only matches the signal down to 20 $h^{-1}$ Mpc. Our detection demonstrates that galaxy clustering in the non-linear regime of structure formation preserves an interpretable memory of the large-scale tidal field. Multiplet alignment complements traditional two-point measurements by retaining directional information imprinted by tidal forces, and contains additional line-of-sight information compared to weak lensing. This is a more effective estimator than the alignment of individual galaxies in dense, blue, or faint galaxy samples.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s

We live in an extraordinary period of discovery in astronomy and astrophysics. Six Nobel Prizes have been awarded over the past decade alone for discoveries based on astronomical data (dark energy, gravitational waves, neutrino oscillations, the discovery of exoplanets, cosmology, and supermassive black holes). Many of the ambitious scientific visions of the 2010 New Worlds, New Horizons (Astro2010)1 decadal survey are being fulfilled, but momentum has only grown. We stand on the threshold of new endeavors that will transform not only our understanding of the universe and the processes and physical paradigms that govern it but also humanity’s place in it. This report of the Committee for a Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020) proposes a broad, integrated plan for space- and ground-based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade 2023–2032.2 It also lays the foundations for further advances in the following decade. This is the seventh in a sequence of decadal survey studies in this field from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This survey examines the program of record, providing advice on the major projects from prior surveys that are yet to be completed. It also lays out priorities for future investments driven by scientific opportunities. The recommendations in this report advance foundational activities that support the people who drive innovation and discovery, and that promote the technologies and tools needed to carry out the science. The report also recommends sustaining activities on a broad range of cost and time scales, as well as activities that enable future visionary projects by maturing them scientifically and technically. Last, the recommendations set in motion the construction of frontier facilities that will change the view and understanding of the cosmos. The survey is bounded by plausible budget scenarios based on briefings from the sponsoring agencies— the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Within these bounds, the survey aims high, reflecting this time of great scientific promise and progress, with opportunities to pursue some of the most compelling scientific quests of our times.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

First detection of the BAO signal from early DESI data

We present the first detection of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) signal obtained using unblinded data collected during the initial 2 months of operations of the Stage-IV ground-based Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). From a selected sample of 261 291 luminous red galaxies spanning the redshift interval 0.4 < z < 1.1 and covering 1651 square degrees with a 57.9 per cent completeness level, we report a ∼5σ level BAO detection and the measurement of the BAO location at a precision of 1.7 per cent. Using a bright galaxy sample of 109 523 galaxies in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.5, over 3677 square degrees with a 50.0 per cent completeness, we also detect the BAO feature at ∼3σ significance with a 2.6 per cent precision. These first BAO measurements represent an important milestone, acting as a quality control on the optimal performance of the complex robotically actuated, fibre-fed DESI spectrograph, as well as an early validation of the DESI spectroscopic pipeline and data management system. Based on these first promising results, we forecast that DESI is on target to achieve a high-significance BAO detection at sub-per cent precision with the completed 5-yr survey data, meeting the top-level science requirements on BAO measurements. This exquisite level of precision will set new standards in cosmology and confirm DESI as the most competitive BAO experiment for the remainder of this decade.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

On the impact of the galaxy window function on cosmological parameter estimation

One important source of systematics in galaxy redshift surveys comes from the estimation of the galaxy window function. Up until now, the impact of the uncertainty in estimating the galaxy window function on parameter inference has not been properly studied. In this paper, we show that the uncertainty and the bias in estimating the galaxy window function will be salient for ongoing and next-generation galaxy surveys using a simulation-based approach. With a specific case study of cross-correlating emission-line galaxies from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and the Planck cosmic microwave background lensing map, we show that neural network-based regression approaches to modelling the window function are superior in comparison to linear regression-based models. Here, we additionally show that the definition of the galaxy overdensity estimator can impact the overall signal-to-noise of observed power spectra. Finally, we show that the additive biases coming from the window functions can significantly bias the modes of the inferred parameters and also degrade their precision. Thus, a careful understanding of the window functions will be essential to conduct cosmological experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

The DESI N -body simulation project – I. Testing the robustness of simulations for the DESI dark time survey

ABSTRACT Analysis of large galaxy surveys requires confidence in the robustness of numerical simulation methods. The simulations are used to construct mock galaxy catalogues to validate data analysis pipelines and identify potential systematics. We compare three N-body simulation codes, abacus, gadget-2, and swift, to investigate the regimes in which their results agree. We run N-body simulations at three different mass resolutions, 6.25 × 108, 2.11 × 109, and 5.00 × 109 h−1 M⊙, matching phases to reduce the noise within the comparisons. We find systematic errors in the halo clustering between different codes are smaller than the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) statistical error for $s\ \gt\ 20\ h^{-1}$ Mpc in the correlation function in redshift space. Through the resolution comparison we find that simulations run with a mass resolution of 2.1 × 109 h−1 M⊙ are sufficiently converged for systematic effects in the halo clustering to be smaller than the DESI statistical error at scales larger than $20\ h^{-1}$ Mpc. These findings show that the simulations are robust for extracting cosmological information from large scales which is the key goal of the DESI survey. Comparing matter power spectra, we find the codes agree to within 1 per cent for k ≤ 10 h Mpc−1. We also run a comparison of three initial condition generation codes and find good agreement. In addition, we include a quasi-N-body code, FastPM, since we plan use it for certain DESI analyses. The impact of the halo definition and galaxy–halo relation will be presented in a follow-up study.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Accuracy of power spectra in dissipationless cosmological simulations

Abstract We exploit a suite of large N-body simulations (up to N = 40963) performed with abacus, of scale-free models with a range of spectral indices n, to better understand and quantify convergence of the matter power spectrum. Using self-similarity to identify converged regions, we show that the maximal wavenumber resolved at a given level of accuracy increases monotonically as a function of time. At 1 per cent level it starts at early times from a fraction of $k_\Lambda$, the Nyquist wavenumber of the initial grid, and reaches at most, if the force softening is sufficiently small, ${\sim}2{-}3 k_\Lambda$ at the very latest times we evolve to. At the $5{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ level, accuracy extends up to wavenumbers of order $5k_\Lambda$ at late times. Expressed as a suitable function of the scale-factor, accuracy shows a very simple n-dependence, allowing a extrapolation to place conservative bounds on the accuracy of N-body simulations of non-scale-free models like LCDM. We note that deviations due to discretization in the converged range are not well modelled by shot noise, and subtracting it in fact degrades accuracy. Quantitatively our findings are broadly in line with the conservative assumptions about resolution adopted by recent studies using large cosmological simulations (e.g. Euclid Flagship) aiming to constrain the mildly non-linear regime. On the other hand, we remark that conclusions about small-scale clustering (e.g. concerning the validity of stable clustering) obtained using PS data at wavenumbers larger than a few $k_\Lambda$ may need revision in light of our convergence analysis.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

A fully Lagrangian, non-parametric bias model for dark matter halos

Here, we present a non-parametric Lagrangian biasing model and fit the ratio of the halo and mass densities at the field level using the mass-weighted halo field in the AbacusSummit simulations at z=0.5. Unlike the perturbative halo bias model that has been widely used in interpreting the observed large-scale structure traced by galaxies, we find a non-negative halo-to-mass ratio that increases monotonically with the linear overdensity δ 1 in the initial Lagrangian space. The bias expansion, however, does not guarantee non-negativity of the halo counts, and may lead to rising halo number counts at negative overdensities. The shape of the halo-to-mass ratio is unlikely to be described by a polynomial function of δ 1 and other quantities. Especially for massive halos with 6×10 12 h -1 M ⊙ , the halo-to-mass ratio starts soaring up at δ 1 >0, substantially different from the predictions of the bias expansion. We show that for the halo masses we consider (M>3×10 11 h -1 M ⊙ ) a non-parametric halo-to-mass ratio as a function of δ 1 and its local derivative ∇^2δ 1 can recover the halo power spectra to sub-percent level accuracy for wavenumbers k=0.01-0.1 h Mpc -1 given a proper smoothing scale to filter the initial density field, even though we do not fit the power spectrum directly. However, there is mild dependence of the recovery of the halo power spectrum on the smoothing scale and other input parameters. At k<0.01 h Mpc -1 and for massive halos with M>6x10 12 h -1 M ⊙ , our non-parametric model leads to a few percent overestimation of the halo power spectrum, indicating the need for larger or multiple smoothing scales. The halo-to-mass ratios obtained qualitatively agree with intuitions from extended Press-Schechter theory. We compare our framework to the bias expansion and discuss possible extensions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

AbacusSummit Cleaned Halo Catalogs

This is a data release from the AbacusSummit suite of cosmological N-body simulations. It contains dark matter halo catalogs and particle samples from those halos. The halo catalogs have been augmented (cleaned) using halo merger tree information. Descriptions of AbacusSummit, the cleaned halo catalogs, and instructions for manipulating these catalogs can be found at the following URL: abacussummit.readthedocs.io/ The halo catalog cleaning is structured as a set of auxiliary files that are ingested by the reader code at runtime. But this release contains both the original catalogs and the auxiliary files, thus forming a self-contained dataset. The files in this release are aggregated by redshift. We define sets of simulations (like all c000 sims or all hugebase sims), and then store one redshift from all simulations per tarball. This is designed to support the use-case where a user wants to analyze multiple simulations at a certain redshift.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

The halo light-cone catalogues of ABACUSSUMMIT

We describe a method for generating halo catalogues on the light-cone using the AbacusSummit suite of N-body simulations. The main application of these catalogues is the construction of realistic mock galaxy catalogues and weak lensing maps on the sky. Our algorithm associates the haloes from a set of coarsely spaced snapshots with their positions at the time of light-cone crossing by matching halo particles to on-the-fly light-cone particles. It then records the halo and particle information into an easily accessible product, which we call the AbacusSummit halo light-cone catalogues. Our recommended use of this product is in the halo mass regime of M halo > 2.1 x 10 11 M ⊙ h -1 for the base resolution simulations, i.e. haloes containing at least 100 particles, where the interpolated halo properties are most reliable. To test the validity of the obtained catalogues, we perform various visual inspections and consistency checks. In particular, we construct galaxy mock catalogues of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at z ~ 1 by adopting a modified version of the AbacusHOD script, which builds on the standard halo occupation distribution (HOD) method by including various extensions. We find that the multipoles of the autocorrelation function are consistent with the predictions from the full-box snapshot, implicitly validating our algorithm. In addition, we compute and output CMB convergence maps and find that the auto- and cross-power spectrum agrees with the theoretical prediction at the sub-per-cent level.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

COMPASO : A new halo finder for competitive assignment to spherical overdensities

We describe a new method (compaso) for identifying groups of particles in cosmological N-body simulations. compaso builds upon existing spherical overdensity (SO) algorithms by taking into consideration the tidal radius around a smaller halo before competitively assigning halo membership to the particles. In this way, the compaso finder allows for more effective deblending of haloes in close proximity as well as the formation of new haloes on the outskirts of larger ones. This halo-finding algorithm is used in the abacussummit suite of N-body simulations, designed to meet the cosmological simulation requirements of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey. compaso is developed as a highly efficient on-the-fly group finder, which is crucial for enabling good load-balancing between the GPU and CPU and the creation of high-resolution merger trees. In this paper, we describe the halo-finding procedure and its particular implementation in abacus, accompanying it with a qualitative analysis of the finder. We test the robustness of the compaso catalogues before and after applying the cleaning method described in an accompanying paper and demonstrate its effectiveness by comparing it with other validation techniques. We then visualize the haloes and their density profiles, finding that they are well fit by the NFW formalism. Finally, we compare other properties such as radius–mass relationships and two-point correlation functions with that of another widely used halo finder, rockstar.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

AbacusSummit Halo Light Cone Catalogs

This is a set of halo light cone catalogs from the AbacusSummit suite of cosmological N-body simulations (abacussummit.readthedocs.io/). They are a value-added data product provided by post-processing the simulation output. The main application of the halo light cone catalogs is the construction of realistic mock galaxy catalogues and weak lensing maps on the sky. The algorithm (described in Hadzhiyska et al. 2021) associates CompaSO halos from 29 redshift epochs spanning z = 0.1-2.5 with their particles at the time of light-cone crossing. It then records the halo and particle information into an easily accessible product, which can be read with the CompaSO reader. The 25 base resolution boxes at fiducial cosmology have a halo light cone catalog covering an octant of the sky to z approx 0.8 and about 2000 deg2 extending to z approx 2.4. The huge boxes provide light cone information of the full sky until z approx 2.18 and extend further towards the corners of the box (available until z = 2.25). Galaxy mock catalogs on the sky can be generated easily though the AbacusHOD script providing an extended HOD framework (see Yuan et al. 2021, for details), which has been modified to work with the halo light cone catalogs. The available tracers are luminous red galaxies (LRGs), emission-line galaxies (ELGs), and quasi-stellar objects (QSOs).

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Galaxy assembly bias and large-scale distribution: a comparison between IllustrisTNG and a semi-analytic model

In this work, we compare large scale structure observables for stellar mass selected samples at z = 0, as predicted by two galaxy models, the hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG and the Santa-Cruz semi-analytic model (SC-SAM). Although both models have been independently calibrated to match observations, rather than each other, we find good agreement between the two models for two-point clustering and galaxy assembly bias signatures. The models also show a qualitatively similar response of occupancy and clustering to secondary halo parameters other than mass, such as formation history and concentration, although with some quantitative differences. Thus, our results demonstrate that the galaxy–halo relationships in SC-SAM and TNG are quite similar to first order. However, we also find areas in which the models differ. For example, we note a strong correlation between halo gas content and environment in TNG, which is lacking in the SC-SAM, as well as differences in the occupancy predictions for low-mass haloes. Moreover, we show that higher order statistics, such as cumulants of the density field, help us to accurately describe the galaxy distribution and discriminate between models that show degenerate behaviour for two-point statistics. Our results suggest that SAMs are a promising cost-effective and intuitive method for generating mock catalogues for next generation cosmological surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Extensions to models of the galaxy–halo connection

ABSTRACT We explore two widely used empirical models for the galaxy–halo connection, subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) and the halo occupation distribution (HOD), and compare them with the hydrodynamical simulation IllustrisTNG (TNG) for multiple statistics quantifying the galaxy distribution at $n_{\rm gal}\approx 1.3\times 10^{-3}\, ({\rm Mpc}\,h^{-1})^{-3}$. We observe that in their most straightforward implementations, both models fail to reproduce the two-point clustering measured in TNG. We find that SHAM models that use the relaxation velocity, Vrelax, and the peak velocity, Vpeak, perform best, and match the clustering reasonably well, although neither captures adequately the one-halo clustering. Splitting the total sample into sub-populations, we discover that SHAM overpredicts the clustering of high-mass, blue, star-forming, and late-forming galaxies and underpredicts that of low-mass, red, quiescent, and early-forming galaxies. We also study various baryonic effects, finding that subhaloes in the dark-matter-only simulation have consistently higher values of their SHAM-proxy properties than their full-physics counterparts. We then consider a 2D implementation of the HOD model augmented with a secondary parameter (environment, velocity anisotropy, σ2Rhalf-mass, and total potential) tuned so as to match the two-point clustering of the IllustrisTNG galaxies on large scales. We analyse these galaxy populations adopting alternative statistical tools such as galaxy–galaxy lensing, void–galaxy cross-correlations, and cumulants of the density field, finding that the hydrodynamical galaxy distribution disfavours σ2Rhalf-mass and the total potential as secondary parameters, while the environment and velocity anisotropy samples are consistent with full physics across all statistical probes examined. Our results demonstrate the power of examining multiple statistics for determining the secondary parameters that are vital for understanding the galaxy–halo connection.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Quantifying resolution in cosmological N- body simulations using self-similarity

ABSTRACT We demonstrate that testing for self-similarity in scale-free simulations provides an excellent tool to quantify the resolution at small scales of cosmological N-body simulations. Analysing two-point correlation functions measured in simulations using abacus , we show how observed deviations from self-similarity reveal the range of time and distance scales in which convergence is obtained. While the well-converged scales show accuracy below 1 per cent, our results show that, with a small force softening length, the spatial resolution is essentially determined by the mass resolution. At later times, the lower cut-off scale on convergence evolves in comoving units as a−1/2 (a being the scale factor), consistent with a hypothesis that it is set by two-body collisionality. A corollary of our results is that N-body simulations, particularly at high red-shift, contain a significant spatial range in which clustering appears converged with respect to the time-stepping and force softening but has not actually converged to the physical continuum result. The method developed can be applied to determine the resolution of any clustering statistic and extended to infer resolution limits for non-scale-free simulations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2012

Science Opportunities with the Near-IR Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

The Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) offers revolutionary gains in sensitivity throughout the 1-5 micrometer region. NIRCam will enable great advances in all areas of astrophysics, from the composition of objects in our own Kuiper Belt and the physical properties of planets orbiting nearby stars to the formation of stars and the detection of the youngest galaxies in the Universe. NIRCam also plays an important role in initial alignment of JWST and the long term maintenance of its image quality. NIRCam is presently undergoing instrument Integration and Test in preparation for delivery to the JWST project. Key near-term milestones include the completion of cryogenic testing of the entire instrument; demonstration of scientific and wavefront sensing performance requirements; testing of replacement H2RG detectors arrays; and an analysis of coronagraphic performance in light of measured telescope wavefront characteristics. This paper summarizes the performance of NIRCam, the scientific and education/outreach goals of the science team, and some results of the on-going testing program.

solar system↗

NASA NTRS2003

Karhunen-Loeve Estimation of the Power Spectrum Parameters from the Angular Distribution of Galaxies in Early Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data

We present measurements of parameters of the three-dimensional power spectrum of galaxy clustering from 222 square degrees of early imaging data in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The projected galaxy distribution on the sky is expanded over a set of Karhunen-Loeve (KL) eigenfunctions, which optimize the signal-to-noise ratio in our analysis. A maximum likelihood analysis is used to estimate parameters that set the shape and amplitude of the three-dimensional power spectrum of galaxies in the SDSS magnitude-limited sample with r* less than 21. Our best estimates are gamma = 0.188 +/- 0.04 and sigma(sub 8L) = 0.915 +/- 0.06 (statistical errors only), for a flat universe with a cosmological constant. We demonstrate that our measurements contain signal from scales at or beyond the peak of the three-dimensional power spectrum. We discuss how the results scale with systematic uncertainties, like the radial selection function. We find that the central values satisfy the analytically estimated scaling relation. We have also explored the effects of evolutionary corrections, various truncations of the KL basis, seeing, sample size, and limiting magnitude. We find that the impact of most of these uncertainties stay within the 2 sigma uncertainties of our fiducial result.

Szalay, Alexander S.↗