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At least 613 records · Page 34

Dark matter halo models of stellar mass-dependent galaxy clustering in PRIMUS+DEEP2 at 0.2 < z < 1.2

We utilize ΛCDM halo occupation models of galaxy clustering to investigate the evolving stellar mass dependent clustering of galaxies in the PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS) and DEEP2 Redshift Survey over the past eight billion years of cosmic time, between 0.2<z<1.2. These clustering measurements provide new constraints on the connections between dark matter halo properties and galaxy properties in the context of the evolving large-scale structure of the universe. Using both an analytic model and a set of mock galaxy catalogs, we find a strong correlation between central galaxy stellar mass and dark matter halo mass over the range M{sub halo}∼10{sup 11}–10{sup 13} h{sup −1} M{sub ⊙}, approximately consistent with previous observations and theoretical predictions. However, the stellar-to-halo mass relation and the mass scale where star formation efficiency reaches a maximum appear to evolve more strongly than predicted by other models, including models based primarily on abundance-matching constraints. We find that the fraction of satellite galaxies in halos of a given mass decreases significantly from z∼0.5 to z∼0.9, partly due to the fact that halos at fixed mass are rarer at higher redshift and have lower abundances. We also find that the M{sub 1}/M{sub min} ratio, a model parameter that quantifies the critical mass above which halos host at least one satellite, decreases from ≈20 at z∼0 to ≈13 at z∼0.9. Considering the evolution of the subhalo mass function vis-à-vis satellite abundances, this trend has implications for relations between satellite galaxies and halo substructures and for intracluster mass, which we argue has grown due to stripped and disrupted satellites between z∼0.9 and z∼0.5.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A critical assessment of stellar mass measurement methods

This is the second paper in a series aimed at investigating the main sources of uncertainty in measuring the observable parameters in galaxies from their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). In the first paper we presented a detailed account of the photometric redshift measurements and an error analysis of this process. In this paper we perform a comprehensive study of the main sources of random and systematic error in stellar mass estimates for galaxies, and their relative contributions to the associated error budget. Since there is no prior knowledge of the stellar mass of galaxies (unlike their photometric redshifts), we use mock galaxy catalogs with simulated multi-waveband photometry and known redshift, stellar mass, age and extinction for individual galaxies. The multi-waveband photometry for the simulated galaxies were generated in 13 filters spanning from U-band to mid-infrared wavelengths. Given different parameters affecting stellar mass measurement (photometric signal-to-noise ratios (S/N), SED fitting errors and systematic effects), the inherent degeneracies and correlated errors, we formulated different simulated galaxy catalogs to quantify these effects individually. For comparison, we also generated catalogs based on observed photometric data of real galaxies in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South field, spanning the same passbands. The simulated and observed catalogs were provided to a number of teams within the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey collaboration to estimate the stellar masses for individual galaxies. A total of 11 teams participated, with different combinations of stellar mass measurement codes/methods, population synthesis models, star formation histories, extinction and age. For each simulated galaxy, the differences between the input stellar masses, M{sub input}, and those estimated by each team, M{sub est}, is defined as Δlog(M)≡log(M{sub estimated})−log(M{sub input}), and used to identify the most fundamental parameters affecting stellar mass estimate in galaxies, with the following results. (1) No significant bias in Δ log(M) was found among different codes, with all having comparable scatter (σ(Δlog(M))=0.136 dex). The estimated stellar mass values are seriously affected by low photometric S/N, with the rms scatter increasing for galaxies with H{sub AB}>26 mag; (2) A source of error contributing to the scatter in Δ log(M) is found to be due to photometric uncertainties (0.136 dex) and low resolution in age and extinction grids when generating the SED templates; (3) The median of stellar masses among different methods provides a stable measure of the mass associated with any given galaxy (σ(Δlog(M))=0.142 dex); (4) The Δ log(M) values are strongly correlated with deviations in age (defined as the difference between the estimated and expected values), with a weaker correlation with extinction; (5) The rms scatter in the estimated stellar masses due to free parameters (after fixing redshifts and initial mass function) are quantified and found to be σ(Δlog(M))=0.110 dex; (6) Using the observed data, we studied the sensitivity of stellar masses to both the population synthesis codes and inclusion of nebular emission lines and found them to affect the stellar mass by 0.2 and 0.3 dex respectively.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Surveying galaxy proto-clusters in emission: A large-scale structure at z = 2.44 and the outlook for HETDEX

Galaxy proto-clusters at z≳2 provide a direct probe of the rapid mass assembly and galaxy growth of present-day massive clusters. Because of the need for precise galaxy redshifts for density mapping and the prevalence of star formation before quenching, nearly all the proto-clusters known to date were confirmed by spectroscopy of galaxies with strong emission lines. Therefore, large emission-line galaxy surveys provide an efficient way to identify proto-clusters directly. Here we report the discovery of a large-scale structure at z = 2.44 in the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) Pilot Survey. On a scale of a few tens of Mpc comoving, this structure shows a complex overdensity of Lyα emitters (LAE), which coincides with broadband selected galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA photometric and zCOSMOS spectroscopic catalogs, as well as overdensities of intergalactic gas revealed in the Lyα absorption maps of Lee et al. We construct mock LAE catalogs to predict the cosmic evolution of this structure. We find that such an overdensity should have already broken away from the Hubble flow, and part of the structure will collapse to form a galaxy cluster with 10{sup 14.5±0.4} M{sub ⊙} by z = 0. The structure contains a higher median stellar mass of broadband selected galaxies, a boost of extended Lyα nebulae, and a marginal excess of active galactic nuclei relative to the field, supporting a scenario of accelerated galaxy evolution in cluster progenitors. Based on the correlation between galaxy overdensity and the z = 0 descendant halo mass calibrated in the simulation, we predict that several hundred 1.9 10{sup 14.5} M{sub ⊙} will be discovered in the 8.5 Gpc{sup 3} of space surveyed by the HETDEX.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NON-EQUILIBRIUM ELECTRONS IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF GALAXY CLUSTERS

The analysis of X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel’dovich measurements of the intracluster medium (ICM) assumes that electrons are in thermal equilibrium with ions in the plasma. However, in the outskirts of galaxy clusters, the electron–ion equilibration timescale can become comparable to the Hubble time, leading to systematic biases in cluster mass estimates and mass-observable scaling relations. To quantify an upper limit of the impact of non-equilibrium electrons, we use a mass-limited sample of simulated galaxy clusters taken from a cosmological simulation with a two-temperature model that assumes the Spitzer equilibration time for the electrons and ions. We show that the temperature bias is more pronounced in more massive and rapidly accreting clusters. For the most extreme case, we find that the bias is of the order of 10% at half of the cluster virial radius and increases to 40% at the edge of the cluster. Gas in filaments is less susceptible to the non-equilibrium effect, leading to azimuthal variations in the temperature bias at large cluster-centric radii. Using mock Chandra observations of simulated clusters, we show that the bias manifests in ultra-deep X-ray observations of cluster outskirts and quantify the resulting biases in hydrostatic mass and cluster temperature derived from these observations. We provide a mass-dependent fitting function for the temperature bias profile, which can be useful for modeling the effect of electron-ion equilibration in galaxy clusters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

CORRELATION ANALYSIS BETWEEN TIBET AS-γ TeV COSMIC RAY AND WMAP NINE-YEAR DATA

The WMAP team subtracted template-based foreground models to produce foreground-reduced maps, and masked point sources and uncertain sky regions directly; however, whether foreground residuals exist in the WMAP foreground-reduced maps is still an open question. Here, we use Pearson correlation coefficient analysis with AS-γ TeV cosmic ray (CR) data to probe possible foreground residuals in the WMAP nine-year data. The correlation results between the CR and foreground-contained maps (WMAP foreground-unreduced maps, WMAP template-based, and Maximum Entropy Method foreground models) suggest that: (1) CRs can trace foregrounds in the WMAP data; (2) at least some TeV CRs originate from the Milky Way; (3) foregrounds may be related to the existence of CR anisotropy (loss-cone and tail-in structures); (4) there exist differences among different types of foregrounds in the decl. range of <15°. Then, we generate 10,000 mock cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky maps to describe the cosmic variance, which is used to measure the effect of the fluctuations of all possible CMB maps to the correlations between CR and CMB maps. Finally, we do correlation analysis between the CR and WMAP foreground-reduced maps, and find that: (1) there are significant anticorrelations; and (2) the WMAP foreground-reduced maps are credible. However, the significant anticorrelations may be accidental, and the higher signal-to-noise ratio Planck SMICA map cannot reject the hypothesis of accidental correlations. We therefore can only conclude that the foreground residuals exist with ∼95% probability.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

On the detection of spectral ripples from the recombination epoch

Photons emitted during cosmological hydrogen (500≲z≲1600) and helium recombination (1600≲z≲3500 for He ii → He i, 5000≲z≲8000 for He iii → He ii) are predicted to appear as broad, weak spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background. We present a feasibility study for a ground-based detection of these recombination lines, which would uniquely probe astrophysical cosmology beyond the last scattering surface and provide observational constraints on the thermal history of the universe. We find that including sufficient signal spectral structure and maximizing signal-to-noise ratio, an octave band in the 2–6 GHz window is optimal; in this band the predicted signal appears as an additive quasi-sinusoidal component with amplitude about 8 nK embedded in a sky spectrum some nine orders of magnitude brighter. We discuss algorithms to detect these tiny spectral fluctuations in the sky spectrum by foreground modeling and introduce a maximally smooth function capable of describing the foreground spectrum and distinguishing the signal of interest. We conclude that detection is in principle feasible in realistic observing times provided that radio frequency interference and instrument bandpass calibration are controlled in this band at the required level; using Bayesian tests and mock data, we show that 90% confidence detection is possible with an array of 128 radiometers observing for 255 days of effective integration time. We propose APSERa—Array of Precision Spectrometers for the Epoch of Recombination—a dedicated radio telescope to detect these recombination lines.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

RADIO AND X-RAY SHOCKS IN CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES

Radio relics detected in the outskirts of galaxy clusters are thought to trace radio-emitting relativistic electrons accelerated at cosmological shocks. In this study, using the cosmological hydrodynamic simulation data for the large-scale structure formation and adopting a diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) model for the production of cosmic-ray (CR) electrons, we construct mock radio and X-ray maps of simulated galaxy clusters that are projected in the sky plane. Various properties of shocks and radio relics, including the shock Mach number, radio spectral index, and luminosity, are extracted from the synthetic maps and compared with observations. A substantial fraction of radio and X-ray shocks identified in these maps involve multiple shock surfaces along lines of sight (LOSs), and the morphology of shock distributions in the maps depends on the projection direction. Among multiple shocks in a given LOS, radio observations tend to pick up stronger shocks with flatter radio spectra, while X-ray observations preferentially select weaker shocks with larger kinetic energy flux. As a result, in some cases the shock Mach numbers and locations derived from radio and X-ray observations could differ from each other. We also find that the distributions of the spectral index and radio power of the synthetic radio relics are somewhat inconsistent with those of observed real relics; a bit more radio relics have been observed closer to the cluster core and with steeper spectral indices. We suggest that the inconsistency could be explained if very weak shocks with M{sub s} ≲ 2 accelerate CR electrons more efficiently, compared with the DSA model adopted here.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Gravitational lens modeling with basis sets

We present a strong lensing modeling technique based on versatile basis sets for the lens and source planes. Our method uses high performance Monte Carlo algorithms, allows for an adaptive build up of complexity, and bridges the gap between parametric and pixel based reconstruction methods. We apply our method to a Hubble Space Telescope image of the strong lens system RX J1131-1231 and show that our method finds a reliable solution and is able to detect substructure in the lens and source planes simultaneously. Using mock data, we show that our method is sensitive to sub-clumps with masses four orders of magnitude smaller than the main lens, which corresponds to about 10{sup 8}M{sub ⊙}, without prior knowledge of the position and mass of the sub-clump. The modeling approach is flexible and maximizes automation to facilitate the analysis of the large number of strong lensing systems expected in upcoming wide field surveys. The resulting search for dark sub-clumps in these systems, without mass-to-light priors, offers promise for probing physics beyond the standard model in the dark matter sector.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

SPECTRAL IMAGING OF GALAXY CLUSTERS WITH PLANCK

The Sunyaev–Zeldovich (SZ) effect is a promising tool for detecting the presence of hot gas out to the galaxy cluster peripheries. We developed a spectral imaging algorithm dedicated to the SZ observations of nearby galaxy clusters with Planck, with the aim of revealing gas density anisotropies related to the filamentary accretion of materials, or pressure discontinuities induced by the propagation of shock fronts. To optimize an unavoidable trade-off between angular resolution and precision of the SZ flux measurements, the algorithm performs a multi-scale analysis of the SZ maps as well as of other extended components, such as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and the Galactic thermal dust. The demixing of the SZ signal is tackled through kernel-weighted likelihood maximizations. The CMB anisotropies are further analyzed through a wavelet analysis, while the Galactic foregrounds and SZ maps are analyzed via a curvelet analysis that best preserves their anisotropic details. The algorithm performance has been tested against mock observations of galaxy clusters obtained by simulating the Planck High Frequency Instrument and by pointing at a few characteristic positions in the sky. These tests suggest that Planck should easily allow us to detect filaments in the cluster peripheries and detect large-scale shocks in colliding galaxy clusters that feature favorable geometry.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Synergy between fast-ion transport by core MHD and test blanket module fields in DIII-D experiments

We measured fast-ion transport caused by the combination of MHD and a mock-up test-blanket module (TBM) coil in the DIII-D tokamak. The primary diagnostic is an infrared camera that measures the heat flux on the tiles surrounding the coil. The combined effects of the TBM and four other potential sources of transport are studied: neoclassical tearing modes, Alfvén eigenmodes, sawteeth, and applied resonant magnetic perturbation fields for the control of edge localized modes. A definitive synergistic effect is observed at sawtooth crashes where, in the presence of the TBM, the localized heat flux at a burst increases from 0.36 ± 0.27 to 2.6 ± 0.5 MW/m -2 .

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Facility for high heat flux testing of irradiated fusion materials and components using infrared plasma arc lamps

A new high-heat flux testing facility using water-wall stabilized high-power high-pressure argon Plasma Arc Lamps (PALs) has been developed for fusion applications. It can handle irradiated plasma facing component materials and mock-up divertor components. Two PALs currently available at ORNL can provide maximum incident heat fluxes of 4.2 and 27 MW/m2 over a heated area of 9x12 and 1x10 cm2, respectively, which are fusion-prototypical steady state heat flux conditions. The facility will be described and the main differences between the photon-based high-heat flux testing facilities, such as PALs, and the e-beam and particle beam facilities more commonly used for fusion HHF testing are discussed. The components of the test chamber were designed to accommodate radiation safety and materials compatibility requirements posed by high-temperature exposure of low levels irradiated tungsten articles. Issues related to the operation and temperature measurements during testing are presented and discussed.

Sabau, Adrian S↗

BAYESIAN ANGULAR POWER SPECTRUM ANALYSIS OF INTERFEROMETRIC DATA

We present a Bayesian angular power spectrum and signal map inference engine which can be adapted to interferometric observations of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), 21 cm emission line mapping of galactic brightness fluctuations, or 21 cm absorption line mapping of neutral hydrogen in the dark ages. The method uses Gibbs sampling to generate a sampled representation of the angular power spectrum posterior and the posterior of signal maps given a set of measured visibilities in the uv-plane. We use a mock interferometric CMB observation to demonstrate the validity of this method in the flat-sky approximation when adapted to take into account arbitrary coverage of the uv-plane, mode-mode correlations due to observations on a finite patch, and heteroschedastic visibility errors. The computational requirements scale as O(n{sub p} log n{sub p}) where n{sub p} measures the ratio of the size of the detector array to the inter-detector spacing, meaning that Gibbs sampling is a promising technique for meeting the data analysis requirements of future cosmology missions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMATIC ERRORS IN INTERFEROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND

We investigate the impact of instrumental systematic errors in interferometric measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and polarization power spectra. We simulate interferometric CMB observations to generate mock visibilities and estimate power spectra using the statistically optimal maximum likelihood technique. We define a quadratic error measure to determine allowable levels of systematic error that does not induce power spectrum errors beyond a given tolerance. As an example, in this study we focus on differential pointing errors. The effects of other systematics can be simulated by this pipeline in a straightforward manner. We find that, in order to accurately recover the underlying B-modes for r = 0.01 at 28 < l < 384, Gaussian-distributed pointing errors must be controlled to 0. Degree-Sign 7 root mean square for an interferometer with an antenna configuration similar to QUBIC, in agreement with analytical estimates. Only the statistical uncertainty for 28 < l < 88 would be changed at {approx}10% level. With the same instrumental configuration, we find that the pointing errors would slightly bias the 2{sigma} upper limit of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r by {approx}10%. We also show that the impact of pointing errors on the TB and EB measurements is negligibly small.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS IN INTERFEROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND POLARIZATION

The detection of the primordial B-mode spectrum of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) signal may provide a probe of inflation. However, observation of such a faint signal requires excellent control of systematic errors. Interferometry proves to be a promising approach for overcoming such a challenge. In this paper we present a complete simulation pipeline of interferometric observations of CMB polarization, including systematic errors. We employ two different methods for obtaining the power spectra from mock data produced by simulated observations: the maximum likelihood method and the method of Gibbs sampling. We show that the results from both methods are consistent with each other as well as, within a factor of six, with analytical estimates. Several categories of systematic errors are considered: instrumental errors, consisting of antenna gain and antenna coupling errors; and beam errors, consisting of antenna pointing errors, beam cross-polarization, and beam shape (and size) errors. In order to recover the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r, within a 10% tolerance level, which ensures the experiment is sensitive enough to detect the B-signal at r = 0.01 in the multipole range 28 < l < 384, we find that, for a QUBIC-like experiment, Gaussian-distributed systematic errors must be controlled with precisions of |g{sub rms}| = 0.1 for antenna gain, |{epsilon}{sub rms}| = 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} for antenna coupling, {delta}{sub rms} Almost-Equal-To 0. Degree-Sign 7 for pointing, {zeta}{sub rms} Almost-Equal-To 0. Degree-Sign 7 for beam shape, and {mu}{sub rms} = 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -4} for beam cross-polarization. Although the combined systematic effects produce a tolerance level on r twice as large for an experiment with linear polarizers, the resulting bias in r for a circular experiment is 15% which is still on the level of desirable sensitivity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Giga-z: A 100,000 OBJECT SUPERCONDUCTING SPECTROPHOTOMETER FOR LSST FOLLOW-UP

We simulate the performance of a new type of instrument, a Superconducting Multi-Object Spectrograph (SuperMOS), that uses microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). MKIDs, a new detector technology, feature good quantum efficiency in the UVOIR, can count individual photons with microsecond timing accuracy, and, like X-ray calorimeters, determine their energy to several percent. The performance of Giga-z, a SuperMOS designed for wide field imaging follow-up observations, is evaluated using simulated observations of the COSMOS mock catalog with an array of 100,000 R{sub 423{sub nm}} = E/{Delta}E = 30 MKID pixels. We compare our results against a simultaneous simulation of LSST observations. In 3 yr on a dedicated 4 m class telescope, Giga-z could observe Almost-Equal-To 2 billion galaxies, yielding a low-resolution spectral energy distribution spanning 350-1350 nm for each; 1000 times the number measured with any currently proposed LSST spectroscopic follow-up, at a fraction of the cost and time. Giga-z would provide redshifts for galaxies up to z Almost-Equal-To 6 with magnitudes m{sub i} {approx}< 25, with accuracy {sigma}{sub {Delta}z/(1+z)} Almost-Equal-To 0.03 for the whole sample, and {sigma}{sub {Delta}z/(1+z)} Almost-Equal-To 0.007 for a select subset. We also find catastrophic failure rates and biases that are consistently lower than for LSST. The added constraint on dark energy parameters for WL + CMB by Giga-z using the FoMSWG default model is equivalent to multiplying the LSST Fisher matrix by a factor of {alpha} = 1.27 (w{sub p} ), 1.53 (w{sub a} ), or 1.98 ({Delta}{gamma}). This is equivalent to multiplying both the LSST coverage area and the training sets by {alpha} and reducing all systematics by a factor of 1/{radical}({alpha}), advantages that are robust to even more extreme models of intrinsic alignment.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

BayeSED: A GENERAL APPROACH TO FITTING THE SPECTRAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF GALAXIES

We present a newly developed version of BayeSED, a general Bayesian approach to the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting of galaxies. The new BayeSED code has been systematically tested on a mock sample of galaxies. The comparison between the estimated and input values of the parameters shows that BayeSED can recover the physical parameters of galaxies reasonably well. We then applied BayeSED to interpret the SEDs of a large K{sub s} -selected sample of galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field with stellar population synthesis models. Using the new BayeSED code, a Bayesian model comparison of stellar population synthesis models has been performed for the first time. We found that the 2003 model by Bruzual and Charlot, statistically speaking, has greater Bayesian evidence than the 2005 model by Maraston for the K{sub s} -selected sample. In addition, while setting the stellar metallicity as a free parameter obviously increases the Bayesian evidence of both models, varying the initial mass function has a notable effect only on the Maraston model. Meanwhile, the physical parameters estimated with BayeSED are found to be generally consistent with those obtained using the popular grid-based FAST code, while the former parameters exhibit more natural distributions. Based on the estimated physical parameters of the galaxies in the sample, we qualitatively classified the galaxies in the sample into five populations that may represent galaxies at different evolution stages or in different environments. We conclude that BayeSED could be a reliable and powerful tool for investigating the formation and evolution of galaxies from the rich multi-wavelength observations currently available. A binary version of the BayeSED code parallelized with Message Passing Interface is publicly available at https://bitbucket.org/hanyk/bayesed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Fast neural Poincaré maps for toroidal magnetic fields

Poincaré maps for toroidal magnetic fields are routinely employed to study gross confinement properties in devices built to contain hot plasmas. In most practical applications, evaluating a Poincaré map requires numerical integration of a magnetic field line, a process that can be slow and that cannot be easily accelerated using parallel computations. We propose a novel neural network architecture, the HénonNet, and show that it is capable of accurately learning realistic Poincaré maps from observations of a conventional field-line-following algorithm. After training, such learned Poincaré maps evaluate much faster than the field-line integration method. Moreover, the HénonNet architecture exactly reproduces the primary physics constraint imposed on field-line Poincaré maps: flux preservation. Furthermore, this structure-preserving property is the consequence of each layer in a HénonNet being a symplectic map. We demonstrate empirically that a HénonNet can learn to mock the confinement properties of a large magnetic island by using coiled hyperbolic invariant manifolds to produce a sticky chaotic region at the desired island location. This suggests a novel approach to designing magnetic fields with good confinement properties that may be more flexible than ensuring confinement using KAM tori.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The effect of high column density systems on the measurement of the Lyman-α forest correlation function

We present a study of the effect of High Column Density (HCD) systems on the Lyα forest correlation function on large scales. We study the effect both numerically, by inserting HCD systems on mock spectra for a specific model, and analytically, in the context of two-point correlations and linear theory. We show that the presence of HCDs substantially contributes to the noise of the correlation function measurement, and systematically alters the measured redshift-space correlation function of the Lyα forest, increasing the value of the density bias factor and decreasing the redshift distortion parameter β{sub α} of the Lyα forest. We provide simple formulae for corrections on these derived parameters, as a function of the mean effective optical depth and bias factor of the host halos of the HCDs, and discuss the conditions under which these expressions should be valid. In practice, precise corrections to the measured parameters of the Lyα forest correlation for the HCD effects are more complex than the simple analytical approximations we present, owing to non-linear effects of the damped wings of the HCD systems and the presence of three-point terms. However, we conclude that an accurate correction for these HCD effects can be obtained numerically and calibrated with observations of the HCD-Lyα cross-correlation. We also discuss an analogous formalism to treat and correct for the contaminating effect of metal lines overlapping the Lyα forest spectra.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗