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At least 361 records · Page 20

RELICS: Strong Lens Models for Five Galaxy Clusters from the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey

Strong gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters magnifies background galaxies, enhancing our ability to discover statistically significant samples of galaxies at ${\boldsymbol{z}}\gt 6$, in order to constrain the high-redshift galaxy luminosity functions. In this study, we present the first five lens models out of the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS) Hubble Treasury Program, based on new HST WFC3/IR and ACS imaging of the clusters RXC J0142.9+4438, Abell 2537, Abell 2163, RXC J2211.7–0349, and ACT-CLJ0102–49151. The derived lensing magnification is essential for estimating the intrinsic properties of high-redshift galaxy candidates, and properly accounting for the survey volume. We report on new spectroscopic redshifts of multiply imaged lensed galaxies behind these clusters, which are used as constraints, and detail our strategy to reduce systematic uncertainties due to lack of spectroscopic information. In addition, we quantify the uncertainty on the lensing magnification due to statistical and systematic errors related to the lens modeling process, and find that in all but one cluster, the magnification is constrained to better than 20% in at least 80% of the field of view, including statistical and systematic uncertainties. The five clusters presented in this paper span the range of masses and redshifts of the clusters in the RELICS program. We find that they exhibit similar strong lensing efficiencies to the clusters targeted by the Hubble Frontier Fields within the WFC3/IR field of view. Outputs of the lens models are made available to the community through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A 6% measurement of the Hubble parameter at z ∼0.45: direct evidence of the epoch of cosmic re-acceleration

Deriving the expansion history of the Universe is a major goal of modern cosmology. To date, the most accurate measurements have been obtained with Type Ia Supernovae (SNe) and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), providing evidence for the existence of a transition epoch at which the expansion rate changes from decelerated to accelerated. However, these results have been obtained within the framework of specific cosmological models that must be implicitly or explicitly assumed in the measurement. It is therefore crucial to obtain measurements of the accelerated expansion of the Universe independently of assumptions on cosmological models. Here we exploit the unprecedented statistics provided by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS, [1-3]) Data Release 9 to provide new constraints on the Hubble parameter H ( z ) using the cosmic chronometers approach. We extract a sample of more than 130000 of the most massive and passively evolving galaxies, obtaining five new cosmology-independent H ( z ) measurements in the redshift range 0.3 < z < 0.5, with an accuracy of ∼11–16% incorporating both statistical and systematic errors. Once combined, these measurements yield a 6% accuracy constraint of H ( z = 0.4293) = 91.8 ± 5.3 km/s/Mpc. The new data are crucial to provide the first cosmology-independent determination of the transition redshift at high statistical significance, measuring z {sub t} = 0.4 ± 0.1, and to significantly disfavor the null hypothesis of no transition between decelerated and accelerated expansion at 99.9% confidence level. This analysis highlights the wide potential of the cosmic chronometers approach: it permits to derive constraints on the expansion history of the Universe with results competitive with standard probes, and most importantly, being the estimates independent of the cosmological model, it can constrain cosmologies beyond—and including—the ΛCDM model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Physical-mass calculation of ρ ( 770 ) and K * ( 892 ) resonance parameters via π π and K π scattering amplitudes from lattice QCD

We present our study of the ρ ( 770 ) and K * ( 892 ) resonances from lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD) employing domain-wall fermions at physical quark masses. We determine the finite-volume energy spectrum in various momentum frames and obtain phase-shift parametrizations via the Lüscher formalism and as a final step the complex resonance poles of the π π and K π elastic scattering amplitudes via an analytical continuation of the models. By sampling a large number of representative sets of underlying energy-level fits, we also assign a systematic uncertainty to our final results. This is a significant extension to data-driven analysis methods that have been used in lattice QCD to date, due to the two-step nature of the formalism. Our final pole positions, M + i Γ / 2 , with all statistical and systematic errors exposed, are M K * = 893 ( 2 ) ( 8 ) ( 54 ) ( 2 ) MeV and Γ K * = 51 ( 2 ) ( 11 ) ( 3 ) ( 0 ) MeV for the K * ( 892 ) resonance and M ρ = 796 ( 5 ) ( 15 ) ( 48 ) ( 2 ) MeV and Γ ρ = 192 ( 10 ) ( 28 ) ( 12 ) ( 0 ) MeV for the ρ ( 770 ) resonance. The four differently grouped sources of uncertainties are, in the order of occurrence: statistical, data-driven systematic, an estimation of systematic effects beyond our computation (dominated by the fact that we employ a single lattice spacing), and the error from the scale-setting uncertainty on our ensemble. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Impact of classical statistics on thermal conductivity predictions of BAs and diamond using machine learning molecular dynamics

Machine learning interatomic potentials (MLIPs) have greatly enhanced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, achieving near-first-principles accuracy in thermal conductivity studies. In this work, we reveal that this accuracy, observed in BAs and diamond at sub-Debye temperatures, stems from an accidental error cancelation: classical statistics overestimates specific heat while underestimating phonon lifetimes, balancing out in thermal conductivity predictions. However, this balance is disrupted when isotopes are introduced, leading MLIP-based MD to significantly underpredict thermal conductivity compared to experiments and quantum statistics-based Boltzmann transport equation. This discrepancy arises not from classical statistics affecting phonon–isotope scattering rates but from its impact on the interplay between phonon–isotope and phonon–phonon scattering in the normal scattering-dominated BAs and diamond. In conclusion, this work underscores the limitations of MLIP-based MD for thermal conductivity studies at sub-Debye temperatures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Precision and Accuracy in PDV and VISAR

This is a technical report discussing our current level of understanding of a wide and varying distribution of uncertainties in velocity results from Photonic Doppler Velocimetry in its application to gas gun experiments. Using propagation of errors methods with statistical averaging of photon number fluctuation in the detected photocurrent and subsequent addition of electronic recording noise, we learn that the velocity uncertainty in VISAR can be written in closed form. For PDV, the non-linear frequency transform and peak fitting methods employed make propagation of errors estimates notoriously more difficult to write down in closed form expect in the limit of constant velocity and low time resolution (large analysis-window width). An alternative method of error propagation in PDV is to use Monte Carlo methods with a simulation of the time domain signal based on results from the spectral domain. A key problem for Monte Carlo estimation for an experiment is a correct estimate of that portion of the time-domain noise associated with the peak-fitting region-of-interesting in the spectral domain. Using short-time Fourier transformation spectral analysis and working with the phase dependent real and imaginary parts allows removal of amplitude-noise cross terms that invariably show up when working with correlation-based methods or FFT power spectra. Estimation of the noise associated with a given spectral region of interest is then possible. At this level of progress, we learn that Monte Carlo trials with random recording noise and initial (uncontrolled) phase yields velocity uncertainties that are not as large as those observed. In a search for additional noise sources, a speckleinterference modulation contribution with off axis rays was investigated, and was found to add a velocity variation beyond that from the recording noise (due to random interference between off axis rays), but in our experiments the speckle modulation precision was not as important as the recording noise precision. But from these investigations we do appreciate that the velocity-uncertainty itself has a wide distribution of values that varies with signal-amplitude modulation (is not a single value). To provide a rough rule of thumb for the velocity uncertainty, we computed the average of the relative standard deviation distributions from 60 recorded traces (with distributions of uncertainties roughly between 0.1 % to 1 % in each trace) and found a mean of the distribution of uncertainties for our experiments is not better than 0.4 % at an analysis window width of 5 ns (although for brief intervals it can be as good as 0.1 %). Further imagination and testing may be needed to reveal other possible hydrodynamics-related sources of velocity error in PDV.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Systematic error analysis in the absolute hydrogen gas jet polarimeter at RHIC

The Polarized Atomic Hydrogen Gas Jet Target polarimeter (HJET) is operated at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) since 2004 to measure the absolute polarization of each colliding proton beam. Polarimeter detectors and data acquisition were upgraded in 2015 to increase the solid angle, energy range, and to improve the energy and time resolution. These upgrades along with an improved beam intensity and polarization allowed us to greatly reduce the statistical and systematic errors for the proton polarization measurements in RHIC Runs 15 (E beam = 100 GeV) and 17 (255 GeV). For a typical 8 hour RHIC store, the measured proton beam average polarization was about P beam ~ 55 ± 2.0 stat ± 0.3 syst %. The elastic pp analyzing power, AN(t)~0.04, was determined with a precision of about |δA N (t)|~0.0002 in the momentum transfer squared range 0.001<-t<0.020 GeV 2 . In this paper we present a detailed systematic error analysis of the polarization measurements at HJET. Perspectives of using the HJET based absolute polarimeters in the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC) will be also discussed.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Ly$α$ Forests

Here, we present a measurement of baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) from Lyman-α (Lyα) absorption and quasars at an effective redshift $z = 2.33$ using the complete extended Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). The sixteenth and final eBOSS data release (SDSS DR16) contains all data from eBOSS and its predecessor, the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), providing 210,005 quasars with $z_q > 2.10$ that are used to measure Lyα absorption. We measure the BAO scale both in the auto-correlation of Ly$α$ absorption and in its cross correlation with 341,468 quasars with redshift $z_q > 1.77$. Apart from the statistical gain from new quasars and deeper observations, the main improvements over previous work come from more accurate modeling of physical and instrumental correlations and the use of new sets of mock data. Combining the BAO measurement from the auto- and cross-correlation yields the constraints of the two ratios $D_H(z = 2.33)/r_d = 8.99 ± 0.19$ and $D_M(z = 2.33)/r_d = 37.5 ± 1.1$, where the error bars are statistical. These results are within $1.5σ$ of the prediction of the flat-ΛCDM cosmology of Planck (2016). The analysis code, picca, the catalog of the flux-transmission field measurements, and the $Δ\chi^2$ surfaces are publicly available.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: anisotropic clustering analysis in configuration space

We explore the cosmological implications of anisotropic clustering measurements of the quasar sample from Data Release 14 (DR14) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) in configuration space. The similar to 147000 quasar sample observed by eBOSS offers a direct tracer of the density field and bridges the gap of previous baryon acoustic oscillation measurements between redshift 0.8 < z < 2.2. By analysing the two-point correlation function characterized by clustering wedges xi(wi)(s) and multipolesi xi(l)(S), we measure the angular diameter distance, Hubble parameter, and cosmic structure growth rate. We define a systematic error budget for our measurements based on the analysis of N-body simulations and mock catalogues. Based on the DR14 large-scale structure quasar sample at the effective redshift z(eff) = 1.52, we find the growth rate of cosmic structure f sigma(8)(z(eff)) = 0.396 +/- 0.079, and the geometric parameters Dv(z)/r(d) = 26.47 +/- 1.23, and F-AP(Z) = 2.53 +/- 0.22, where the uncertainties include both statistical and systematic errors. These values are in excellent agreement with the best-fitting standard A cold dark matter model to the latest cosmic microwave background data from Planck.

cosmology↗

NuSTAR and Suzaku X-ray spectroscopy of NGC 4151: Evidence for reflection from the inner accretion disk

We present X-ray timing and spectral analyses of simultaneous 150 ks Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Suzaku X-ray observations of the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 4151. We disentangle the continuum emission, absorption, and reflection properties of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) by applying inner accretion disk reflection and absorption-dominated models. With a time-averaged spectral analysis, we find strong evidence for relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disk. We find that relativistic emission arises from a highly ionized inner accretion disk with a steep emissivity profile, which suggests an intense, compact illuminating source. We find a preliminary, near-maximal black hole spin a>0.9 accounting for statistical and systematic modeling errors. We find a relatively moderate reflection fraction with respect to predictions for the lamp post geometry, in which the illuminating corona is modeled as a point source. Through a time-resolved spectral analysis, we find that modest coronal and inner disk reflection (IDR) flux variation drives the spectral variability during the observations. We discuss various physical scenarios for the IDR model and we find that a compact corona is consistent with the observed features.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Effects of cluster expansion on the locations of phase transition boundary as a first step to quantify uncertainty in first principles statistical mechanics framework

Predicting phase diagrams from first principle calculations eliminates the need of tedious experimental trials and errors. Fully automating first principle phase diagram calculations without any sort of human intervention has been a long daunting task and troubling scientific communities for decades. This grand problem remains not fully resolved, largely due to the vastly high-dimensional parameter space associated with density functional theory, cluster expansion, lattice Monte Carlo, and the substantial uncertainty propagating through a set of complex simulations. As a first step to tackle this grand problem, we reported a first demonstration of how sensitive phase boundary locations can be to various cluster expansion fittings and input DFT training data. To the best knowledge of the authors, this study reported the first ever attempt to quantify uncertainty in first principles statistical mechanics framework. In addition, a semi-automated phase transition detection algorithm has been devised in this paper to deal with the associated statistical errors and uncertainties from Monte Carlo method and its predecessor DFT calculations and cluster expansions. This algorithm has been applied in a classical cluster expansion Mg-Cd binary alloy system to detect phase transitions at various locations of phase diagram using different cluster expansions to demonstrate its predictive power and quantify uncertainties. The results suggested that using Chebyshev basis function shifted the transition locations toward the dilute solid solution phase and expanded the phase stability of concentrated ordered phases to wider composition range. The addition of perturbed defect configurations into training data set lowered the order-disorder transition temperature to be away from true transition temperature, suggesting the transition nature is indeed configurational disorder dominated rather than defect assisted. Finally, we found that the weighting has negligible effect on the transition locations, except for the case of using Chebyshev basis function to fit all non-weighted configurations that can be susceptible to Monte Carlo sampling hysteresis.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Bayesian model-data comparison incorporating theoretical uncertainties

Accurate comparisons between theoretical models and experimental data are critical for scientific progress. However, inferred physical model parameters can vary significantly with the chosen physics model, highlighting the importance of properly accounting for theoretical uncertainties. In this Letter, we present a Bayesian framework that explicitly quantifies these uncertainties by statistically modeling theory errors, guided by qualitative knowledge of a theory’s varying reliability across the input domain. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach using two systems: a simple ball drop experiment and multi-stage heavy-ion simulations. In both cases incorporating model discrepancy leads to improved parameter estimates, with systematic improvements observed as additional experimental observables are integrated.

Bayesian methods↗

Sizing up the milky way: a bayesian mixture model meta-analysis of photometric scale length measurements

The exponential scale length (L {sub d}) of the Milky Way’s (MW’s) disk is a critical parameter for describing the global physical size of our Galaxy, important both for interpreting other Galactic measurements and helping us to understand how our Galaxy fits into extragalactic contexts. Unfortunately, current estimates span a wide range of values and are often statistically incompatible with one another. Here, we perform a Bayesian meta-analysis to determine an improved, aggregate estimate for L {sub d}, utilizing a mixture-model approach to account for the possibility that any one measurement has not properly accounted for all statistical or systematic errors. Within this machinery, we explore a variety of ways of modeling the nature of problematic measurements, and then employ a Bayesian model averaging technique to derive net posterior distributions that incorporate any model-selection uncertainty. Our meta-analysis combines 29 different (15 visible and 14 infrared) photometric measurements of L {sub d} available in the literature; these involve a broad assortment of observational data sets, MW models and assumptions, and methodologies, all tabulated herein. Analyzing the visible and infrared measurements separately yields estimates for L {sub d} of 2.71{sub −0.20}{sup +0.22} kpc and 2.51{sub −0.13}{sup +0.15} kpc, respectively, whereas considering them all combined yields 2.64 ± 0.13 kpc. The ratio between the visible and infrared scale lengths determined here is very similar to that measured in external spiral galaxies. We use these results to update the model of the Galactic disk from our previous work, constraining its stellar mass to be 4.8{sub −1.1}{sup +1.5}×10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}, and the MW’s total stellar mass to be 5.7{sub −1.1}{sup +1.5}×10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Predicting error in detecting mammographic masses among radiology trainees using statistical models based on BI-RADS features

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) features as predictors of individual errors made by trainees when detecting masses in mammograms. Methods: Ten radiology trainees and three expert breast imagers reviewed 100 mammograms comprised of bilateral medial lateral oblique and craniocaudal views on a research workstation. The cases consisted of normal and biopsy proven benign and malignant masses. For cases with actionable abnormalities, the experts recorded breast (density and axillary lymph nodes) and mass (shape, margin, and density) features according to the BI-RADS lexicon, as well as the abnormality location (depth and clock face). For each trainee, a user-specific multivariate model was constructed to predict the trainee's likelihood of error based on BI-RADS features. The performance of the models was assessed using area under the receive operating characteristic curves (AUC). Results: Despite the variability in errors between different trainees, the individual models were able to predict the likelihood of error for the trainees with a mean AUC of 0.611 (range: 0.502–0.739, 95% Confidence Interval: 0.543–0.680,p < 0.002). Conclusions: Patterns in detection errors for mammographic masses made by radiology trainees can be modeled using BI-RADS features. These findings may have potential implications for the development of future educational materials that are personalized to individual trainees.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Two-pion contribution to hadronic vacuum polarization

We present a detailed analysis of e + e - → π + π - data up to \( \sqrt{s}=1 \) GeV in the framework of dispersion relations. Starting from a family of ππ P -wave phase shifts, as derived from a previous Roy-equation analysis of ππ scattering, we write down an extended Omnès representation of the pion vector form factor in terms of a few free parameters and study to which extent the modern high-statistics data sets can be described by the resulting fit function that follows from general principles of QCD. We find that statistically acceptable fits do become possible as soon as potential uncertainties in the energy calibration are taken into account, providing a strong cross check on the internal consistency of the data sets, but preferring a mass of the ω meson significantly lower than the current PDG average. In addition to a complete treatment of statistical and systematic errors propagated from the data, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the systematic errors in the dispersive representation and derive the consequences for the two-pion contribution to hadronic vacuum polarization. In a global fit to both time- and space-like data sets we find a ππ μ | ≤ 1 GeV = 495.0(1.5)(2.1) × 10 -10 and a ππ μ | ≤ 0.63 GeV = 132.8(0.4)(1.0) × 10 -10 . While the constraints are thus most stringent for low energies, we obtain uncertainty estimates throughout the whole energy range that should prove valuable in corroborating the corresponding contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. As side products, we obtain improved constraints on the ππ P -wave, valuable input for future global analyses of low-energy ππ scattering, as well as a determination of the pion charge radius, $\langle$$r^{2}_{π}$$\rangle$ = 0 . 429(1)(4) fm 2 .

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Assessment of DFT methods for the prediction of detachment energies and electronic structures of complex and multiply charged anions

Here, in this work, we assess the ability of different density functional theory methods to reproduce the vertical/adiabatic detachment energies (VDEs/ADEs) of a series of 40 anions, including monoanion versus multiply charged anions (MCAs) and covalent versus noncovalent interaction. The statistical analysis of errors is firstly performed by comparing the theoretical values with the experimental benchmark data obtained from the negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy (NIPES). The proposed optimally tuned range-separated (OTRS) functionals are proved to not only well reproduce the experimental VDEs/ADEs, but also simulate experimental NIPES. The result implies a more serious issue of delocalization error for MCAs and a balanced description of electron-rich/- deficient region of anions is necessary. The radius of the spherically symmetric average electron localization function (ELF) region is demonstrated as a useful descriptor for the characterization of electronic structure of anionic systems and a quasilinear fitting model is proposed to efficiently obtain their OTRS parameters.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

An experimental limit on the charge of antihydrogen

The properties of antihydrogen are expected to be identical to those of hydrogen, and any differences would constitute a profound challenge to the fundamental theories of physics. The most commonly discussed antiatom-based tests of these theories are searches for antihydrogen-hydrogen spectral differences (tests of CPT (charge-parity-time) invariance) or gravitational differences (tests of the weak equivalence principle). Here we, the ALPHA Collaboration, report a different and somewhat unusual test of CPT and of quantum anomaly cancellation. A retrospective analysis of the influence of electric fields on antihydrogen atoms released from the ALPHA trap finds a mean axial deflection of 4.1±3.4 mm for an average axial electric field of 0.51 V mm –1 . Combined with extensive numerical modelling, this measurement leads to a bound on the charge Qe of antihydrogen of Q=(–1.3±1.1±0.4) × 10 –8 . Here, e is the unit charge, and the errors are from statistics and systematic effects.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Electronic properties of the bulk and surface states of Fe 1+y Te 1-x Se x

The idea of employing non-Abelian statistics for error-free quantum computing ignited interest in reports of topological surface superconductivity and Majorana zero modes (MZMs) in FeTe 0.55 Se 0.45 . However, the topological features and superconducting properties are not observed uniformly across the sample surface. The understanding and practical control of these electronic inhomogeneities present a prominent challenge for potential applications. Here, we combine neutron scattering, scanning angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and microprobe composition and resistivity measurements to characterize the electronic state of Fe 1+y Te 1-x Se x . Furthermore, we establish a phase diagram in which the superconductivity is observed only at sufficiently low Fe concentration, in association with distinct antiferromagnetic correlations, whereas the coexisting topological surface state occurs only at sufficiently high Te concentration. We find that FeTe 0.55 Se 0.45 is located very close to both phase boundaries, which explains the inhomogeneity of superconducting and topological states. Our results demonstrate the compositional control required for use of topological MZMs in practical applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗