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At least 991 records · Page 55
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

On the inconsistency of [C/Fe] abundances and the fractions of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars among various stellar surveys

Carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars are a unique resource for Galactic archaeology because they probe the properties of the First Stars, early chemical evolution, and binary interactions at very low metallicity. Comparing the fractions and properties of CEMP stars in different Galactic environments can provide us with unique insights into the formation and evolution of the Milky Way halo and its building blocks. In this work, we investigate whether directly comparing fractions of CEMP stars from different literature samples of very metal-poor [Fe/H] < -2.0 stars is valid. We compiled published CEMP fractions and samples of Galactic halo stars from the past 25 years, and find that they are not all consistent with each other. Focusing on giant stars, we find significant differences between various surveys when comparing their trends of [Fe/H] versus [C/Fe] and their distributions of CEMP stars. To test the role of the analysis pipelines for low-resolution spectroscopic samples, we re-analysed giant stars from various surveys with the sspp and ferre pipelines. We found systematic differences in [C/Fe] of ~0.1-0.4 dex, partly independent of degeneracies with the stellar atmospheric parameters. These systematics are likely due to the different pipeline approaches, different assumptions in the employed synthetic grids, and/or the comparison of different evolutionary phases. We conclude that current biases in (the analysis of) very metal-poor samples limit the conclusions one can draw from comparing different surveys. We provide some recommendations and suggestions that will hopefully aid the community to unlock the full potential of CEMP stars for Galactic archaeology.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Accelerating cosmological inference with Gaussian processes and neural networks – an application to LSST Y1 weak lensing and galaxy clustering

ABSTRACT Studying the impact of systematic effects, optimizing survey strategies, assessing tensions between different probes and exploring synergies of different data sets require a large number of simulated likelihood analyses, each of which cost thousands of CPU hours. In this paper, we present a method to accelerate cosmological inference using emulators based on Gaussian process regression and neural networks. We iteratively acquire training samples in regions of high posterior probability which enables accurate emulation of data vectors even in high dimensional parameter spaces. We showcase the performance of our emulator with a simulated 3×2 point analysis of LSST-Y1 with realistic theoretical and systematics modelling. We show that our emulator leads to high-fidelity posterior contours, with an order of magnitude speed-up. Most importantly, the trained emulator can be re-used for extremely fast impact and optimization studies. We demonstrate this feature by studying baryonic physics effects in LSST-Y1 3×2 point analyses where each one of our MCMC runs takes approximately 5 min. This technique enables future cosmological analyses to map out the science return as a function of analysis choices and survey strategy.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2022

The H I content of red geyser galaxies

Red geysers are a specific type of quiescent galaxy, denoted by twin jets emerging from their galactic centres. These bisymmetric jets possibly inject energy and heat into the surrounding material, effectively suppressing star formation by stabilizing cool gas. In order to confirm the presence and evolutionary consequences of these jets, this paper discusses the scaling, stacking, and conversion of 21-cm H I flux data sourced from the H I -MaNGA survey into H I gas-to-stellar mass (G/S) spectra. Our samples were dominated by non-detections, or galaxies with weak H I signals, and consequently by H I upper limits. The stacking technique discussed successfully resolved emission features in both the red geyser G/S spectrum and the control sample G/S spectrum. From these stacked spectra, we find that on average, red geyser galaxies have G/S of 0.086 ± 0.011 (random) + 0.029 (systematic), while non-red geyser galaxies of similar stellar mass have a G/S ratio of 0.039 ± 0.018 (random) + 0.013 (systematic). Therefore, we find no statistically significant evidence that the H I content of red geysers is different from the general quiescent population.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Primordial non-Gaussianity from the completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey II: measurements in Fourier space with optimal weights

ABSTRACT We present measurements of the local primordial non-Gaussianity parameter $f_{\mathrm{NL}}^\mathrm{local} $from the clustering of 343 708 quasars with redshifts 0.8 < z < 2.2 distributed over 4808 deg2 from the final data release (DR16) of the extended Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), the largest volume spectroscopic survey up to date. Our analysis is performed in Fourier space, using the power spectrum monopole at very large scales to constrain the scale-dependent halo bias. We demonstrate the robustness of our analysis pipeline with EZ-mock catalogues that simulate the eBOSS DR16 target selection. We carefully assess the impact of systematics on our measurement, exploiting a novel neural network scheme for cleaning the DR16 sample as well as test multiple contamination removal methods. We estimate the bias due to the overcorrection of the systematic removal to be sub-dominant compared to the statistical uncertainty. We find fNL = −12 ± 21 (68 per cent confidence) for the main clustering sample including quasars with redshifts between 0.8 and 2.2, after applying redshift weighting techniques, designed for non-Gaussianity measurement from large scales structure, to optimize our analysis, which improve our results by 37 per cent.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: growth rate of structure measurement from cosmic voids

ABSTRACT We present a void clustering analysis in configuration-space using the completed Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV) extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) DR16 samples. These samples consist of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) combined with the high-redshift tail of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) DR12 CMASS galaxies (called as LRG+CMASS sample), Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs), and quasars (QSOs). We build void catalogues from the three eBOSS DR16 samples using a ZOBOV-based algorithm, providing 2814 voids, 1801 voids, and 4347 voids in the LRG+CMASS, ELG, and QSO samples, respectively, spanning the redshift range 0.6 < z < 2.2. We measure the redshift space distortions around voids using the anisotropic void-galaxy cross-correlation function and we extract the distortion parameter β. We test the methodology on realistic simulations before applying it to the data, and we investigate all our systematic errors on these mocks. We find βLRG(z = 0.74) = 0.415 ± 0.087, βELG(z = 0.85) = 0.665 ± 0.125 and βQSO(z = 1.48) = 0.313 ± 0.134, for the LRG+CMASS, ELG, and QSO sample, respectively. The quoted errors include systematic and statistical contributions. In order to convert our measurements in terms of the growth rate fσ8, we use consensus values of linear bias from the eBOSS DR16 companion papers, resulting in the following constraints: fσ8(z = 0.74) = 0.50 ± 0.11, fσ8(z = 0.85) = 0.52 ± 0.10, and fσ8(z = 1.48) = 0.30 ± 0.13. Our measurements are consistent with other measurements from eBOSS DR16 using conventional clustering techniques.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The co-evolution of strong AGN and central galaxies in different environments

We exploit a sample of 80 000 Sloan Digital Sky Survey central galaxies to investigate the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback on their evolution. We trace the demographics of optically selected AGN (Seyferts) as a function of their internal properties and environment. We find that the preeminence of AGN as the dominant ionizing mechanism increases with stellar mass, overtaking star formation for galaxies with M stellar ≥ 10 10 M ⊙ . The AGN fraction changes systematically with the galaxies’ star formation activity. Within the blue cloud, this fraction increases as star formation activity declines, reaching a maximum near the green valley (⁠~17 ± 4 per cent), followed by a decrease as the galaxies transition into the red sequence. This systematic trend provides evidence that AGN feedback plays a key role in regulating and suppressing star formation. In general, Seyfert central galaxies achieve an early-type morphology while they still host residual star formation. This suggests that, in all environments, the morphology of Seyfert galaxies evolves from late- to early-type before their star formation is fully quenched. Stellar mass plays an important role in this morphological transformation: while low-mass systems tend to emerge from the green valley with an elliptical morphology (T-Type ∼ −2.5 ± 0.7), their high-mass counterparts maintain a spiral morphology deeper into the red sequence. In high-stellar mass centrals, the fraction of Seyferts increases from early- to late-type galaxies, indicating that AGN feedback may be linked with the morphology and its transformation. As a result, our analysis further suggests that AGN are fuelled by their own host halo gas reservoir, but when in group centrals can also increase their gas reservoir via interactions with satellite galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

DESI and DECaLS (D&D): galaxy–galaxy lensing measurements with 1 per cent survey and its forecast

The shear measurement from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) provides an excellent opportunity for galaxy–galaxy lensing study with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) galaxies, given the large (~9000 deg 2 ) sky overlap. We explore this potential by combining the DESI 1 per cent survey and DECaLS Data Release 8 (DR8). With ~106 deg 2 sky overlap, we achieve significant detection of galaxy–galaxy lensing for Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) and luminous red galaxy (LRG) as lenses. Scaled to the full BGS sample, we expect the statistical errors to improve from 18(12)per cent to a promising level of 2(1.3)per cent at θ > 8arcmin(< 8 arcmin) ⁠. This brings stronger requirements for future systematics control. To fully realize such potential, we need to control the residual multiplicative shear bias |m| < 0.006 and the bias in the mean redshift |Δz| < 0.008, requiring the introduced bias in the measurement is <0.31σ. We also expect significant detection of galaxy–galaxy lensing with DESI LRG/emission line galaxy (ELG) full samples as lenses, and cosmic magnification of ELG through cross-correlation with low-redshift DECaLS shear. If such systematical error control can be achieved, we find the advantages of DECaLS, comparing with the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) and the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), are at low redshift, large scale, and in measuring the shear ratio (to σ R ~ 0.04) and cosmic magnification.

(cosmology:) large-scale structure of Universe↗
DOE OSTI2023

Beyond the 3rd moment: a practical study of using lensing convergence CDFs for cosmology with DES Y3

ABSTRACT Widefield surveys probe clustered scalar fields – such as galaxy counts, lensing potential, etc. – which are sensitive to different cosmological and astrophysical processes. Constraining such processes depends on the statistics that summarize the field. We explore the cumulative distribution function (CDF) as a summary of the galaxy lensing convergence field. Using a suite of N-body light-cone simulations, we show the CDFs’ constraining power is modestly better than the second and third moments, as CDFs approximately capture information from all moments. We study the practical aspects of applying CDFs to data, using the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3) data as an example, and compute the impact of different systematics on the CDFs. The contributions from the point spread function and reduced shear approximation are $\lesssim 1~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the total signal. Source clustering effects and baryon imprints contribute 1–10 per cent. Enforcing scale cuts to limit systematics-driven biases in parameter constraints degrade these constraints a noticeable amount, and this degradation is similar for the CDFs and the moments. We detect correlations between the observed convergence field and the shape noise field at 13σ. The non-Gaussian correlations in the noise field must be modelled accurately to use the CDFs, or other statistics sensitive to all moments, as a rigorous cosmology tool.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Robust cosmological inference from non-linear scales with k -th nearest neighbour statistics

ABSTRACT We present the methodology for deriving accurate and reliable cosmological constraints from non-linear scales ($\lt 50\, h^{-1}$ Mpc) with k-th nearest neighbour (kNN) statistics. We detail our methods for choosing robust minimum scale cuts and validating galaxy–halo connection models. Using cross-validation, we identify the galaxy–halo model that ensures both good fits and unbiased predictions across diverse summary statistics. We demonstrate that we can model kNNs effectively down to transverse scales of $r_{\rm p}\sim 3\, h^{-1}$ Mpc and achieve precise and unbiased constraints on the matter density and clustering amplitude, leading to a 2 per cent constraint on σ8. Our simulation-based model pipeline is resilient to varied model systematics, spanning simulation codes, halo finding, and cosmology priors. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach through an application to the Beyond-2p mock challenge. We propose further explorations to test more complex galaxy–halo connection models and tackle potential observational systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmology from cross-correlation of ACT-DR4 CMB lensing and DES-Y3 cosmic shear

Cross-correlation between weak lensing of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and weak lensing of galaxies offers a way to place robust constraints on cosmological and astrophysical parameters with reduced sensitivity to certain systematic effects affecting individual surveys. We measure the angular cross-power spectrum between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR4 CMB lensing and the galaxy weak lensing measured by the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Y3 data. Our baseline analysis uses the CMB convergence map derived from ACT-DR4 and Planck data, where most of the contamination due to the thermal Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect is removed, thus avoiding important systematics in the cross-correlation. In our modelling, we consider the nuisance parameters of the photometric uncertainty, multiplicative shear bias and intrinsic alignment of galaxies. The resulting cross-power spectrum has a signal-to-noise ratio = 7.1 and passes a set of null tests. We use it to infer the amplitude of the fluctuations in the matter distribution (S_8 ≡ σ_8(Ω_m/0.3)^0.5 = 0.782 ± 0.059) with informative but well-motivated priors on the nuisance parameters. We also investigate the validity of these priors by significantly relaxing them and checking the consistency of the resulting posteriors, finding them consistent, albeit only with relatively weak constraints. This cross-correlation measurement will improve significantly with the new ACT-DR6 lensing map and form a key component of the joint 6×2pt analysis between DES and ACT.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Full forward model of galaxy clustering statistics with AbacusSummit light cones

ABSTRACT Novel summary statistics beyond the standard 2-point correlation function (2PCF) are necessary to capture the full astrophysical and cosmological information from the small-scale (r < 30h−1Mpc) galaxy clustering. However, the analysis of beyond-2PCF statistics on small scales is challenging because we lack the appropriate treatment of observational systematics for arbitrary summary statistics of the galaxy field. In this paper, we develop a full forward modelling pipeline for a wide range of summary statistics using the large high-fidelity AbacusSummit light cones that account for many systematic effects as well as remain flexible and computationally efficient to enable posterior sampling. We apply our forward model approach to a fully realistic mock galaxy catalog and demonstrate that we can recover unbiased constraints on the underlying galaxy–halo connection model using two separate summary statistics: the standard 2PCF and the novel k-th nearest neighbour (kNN) statistics, which are sensitive to correlation functions of all orders. We will demonstrate its strong constraining power on extended galaxy–halo connection models and cosmology in follow up papers. We expect this to become a powerful approach when applying to upcoming surveys such as DESI where we can leverage a multitude of summary statistics across a wide redshift range to maximally extract information from the non-linear scales.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Cosmology from weak lensing peaks and minima with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey first-year data

We present cosmological constraints derived from peak counts, minimum counts, and the angular power spectrum of the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam first-year (HSC Y1) weak lensing shear catalogue. Weak lensing peak and minimum counts contain non-Gaussian information and hence are complementary to the conventional two-point statistics in constraining cosmology. In this work, we forward-model the three summary statistics and their dependence on cosmology, using a suite of N-body simulations tailored to the HSC Y1 data. We investigate systematic and astrophysical effects including intrinsic alignments, baryon feedback, multiplicative bias, and photometric redshift uncertainties. We mitigate the impact of these systematics by applying cuts on angular scales, smoothing scales, signal-to-noise ratio bins, and tomographic redshift bins. By combining peaks, minima, and the power spectrum, assuming a flat-ΛCDM model, we obtain S 8 ≡ σ 8 $\sqrt{Ω_m/0.3}$ = 0.810$^{+0.022}_{-0.026}$⁠, a 35 per cent tighter constraint than that obtained from the angular power spectrum alone. Our results are in agreement with other studies using HSC weak lensing shear data, as well as with Planck 2018 cosmology and recent CMB lensing constraints from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the South Pole Telescope.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Modelling the BAO feature in bispectrum

We investigate how well a simple leading order perturbation theory model of the bispectrum can fit the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in the measured bispectrum monopole of galaxies. Previous works showed that perturbative models of the galaxy bispectrum start failing at the wavenumbers of k ∼ 0.1 h Mpc −1 . We show that when the BAO feature in the bispectrum is separated, it can be successfully modelled up to much higher wavenumbers. We validate our modelling on GLAM simulations that were run with and without the BAO feature in the initial conditions. We also quantify the amount of systematic error due to BAO template being offset from the true cosmology. We find that the systematic errors do not exceed 0.3 per cent for reasonable deviations of up to 3 per cent from the true value of the sound horizon.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The dark energy survey: detection of weak lensing magnification of supernovae and constraints on dark matter haloes

The residuals of the distance moduli of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) relative to a Hubble diagram fit contain information about the inhomogeneity of the Universe, due to weak lensing magnification by foreground matter. By correlating the residuals of the Dark Energy Survey Year 5 SN Ia sample (DES-SN5YR) with extragalactic foregrounds from the DES Y3 Gold catalogue, we detect the presence of lensing at |$6.0 \sigma$| significance. This is the first detection with a significance level above |$5\sigma$|⁠. Constraints on the effective mass-to-light ratios and radial profiles of dark matter haloes surrounding individual galaxies are also obtained. We show that the scatter of SNe Ia around the Hubble diagram is reduced by modifying the standardization of the distance moduli to include an easily calculable de-lensing (i.e. environmental) term. We use the de-lensed distance moduli to recompute cosmological parameters derived from SN Ia, finding in Flat wcold dark matter a difference of |$\Delta \Omega _{\rm M} = +0.036$| and |$\Delta w = -0.056$| compared to the unmodified distance moduli, a change of |$\sim 0.3\sigma$|⁠. We argue that our modelling of SN Ia lensing will lower systematics on future surveys with higher statistical power. We use the observed dispersion of lensing in DES-SN5YR to constrain |$\sigma _8$|⁠, but caution that the fit is sensitive to uncertainties at small scales. Nevertheless, our detection of SN Ia lensing opens a new pathway to study matter inhomogeneity that complements galaxy–galaxy lensing surveys and has unrelated systematics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Redshift evolution and covariances for joint lensing and clustering studies with DESI Y1

ABSTRACT Galaxy–galaxy lensing (GGL) and clustering measurements from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Year 1 (DESI Y1) data set promise to yield unprecedented combined-probe tests of cosmology and the galaxy–halo connection. In such analyses, it is essential to identify and characterize all relevant statistical and systematic errors. We forecast the covariances of DESI Y1 GGL + clustering measurements and the systematic bias due to redshift evolution in the lens samples. Focusing on the projected clustering and GGL correlations, we compute a Gaussian analytical covariance, using a suite of N-body and lognormal simulations to characterize the effect of the survey footprint. Using the DESI one percent survey data, we measure the evolution of galaxy bias parameters for the DESI luminous red galaxy (LRG) and bright galaxy survey (BGS) samples. We find mild evolution in the LRGs in $0.4 < z < 0.8$, subdominant to the expected statistical errors. For BGS, we find less evolution for brighter absolute magnitude cuts, at the cost of reduced sample size. We find that for a redshift bin width $\Delta z = 0.1$, evolution effects on DESI Y1 GGL is negligible across all scales, all fiducial selection cuts, all fiducial redshift bins. Galaxy clustering is more sensitive to evolution due to the bias squared scaling. Nevertheless the redshift evolution effect is insignificant for clustering above the 1-halo scale of $0.1h^{-1}$ Mpc. For studies that wish to reliably access smaller scales, additional treatment of redshift evolution is likely needed. This study serves as a reference for GGL and clustering studies using the DESI Y1 sample.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Miscentring of optical galaxy clusters based on Sunyaev–Zeldovich counterparts

ABSTRACT The ‘miscentring effect’, i.e. the offset between a galaxy cluster’s optically defined centre and the centre of its gravitational potential, is a significant systematic effect on brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) studies and cluster lensing analyses. We perform a cross-match between the optical cluster catalogue from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Survey S19A Data Release and the Sunyaev–Zeldovich cluster catalogue from Data Release 5 of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). We obtain a sample of 186 clusters in common in the redshift range $0.1 \le z \le 1.4$ over an area of 469 deg$^2$. By modelling the distribution of centring offsets in this fiducial sample, we find a miscentred fraction (corresponding to clusters offset by more than 330 kpc) of ∼25 per cent, a value consistent with previous miscentring studies. We examine the image of each miscentred cluster in our sample and identify one of several reasons to explain the miscentring. Some clusters show significant miscentring for astrophysical reasons, i.e. ongoing cluster mergers. Others are miscentred due to non-astrophysical, systematic effects in the HSC data or the cluster-finding algorithm. After removing all clusters with clear, non-astrophysical causes of miscentring from the sample, we find a considerably smaller miscentred fraction, $\sim 10~\,\rm per\,cent$. We show that the gravitational lensing signal within 1 Mpc of miscentred clusters is considerably smaller than that of well-centred clusters, and we suggest that the ACT SZ centres are a better estimate of the true cluster potential centroid.

Ding, Jupiter (ORCID:0000000296119799)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating cosmological biases using photometric redshifts for Type Ia Supernova cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program

Cosmological analyses with Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) have traditionally been reliant on spectroscopy for both classifying the type of supernova and obtaining reliable redshifts to measure the distance–redshift relation. While obtaining a host-galaxy spectroscopic redshift for most SNe is feasible for small-area transient surveys, it will be too resource intensive for upcoming large-area surveys such as the Vera Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which will observe on the order of millions of SNe. Here, we use data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to address this problem with photometric redshifts (photo-z) inferred directly from the SN light curve in combination with Gaussian and full p(z) priors from host-galaxy photo-z estimates. Using the DES 5-yr photometrically classified SN sample, we consider several photo-z algorithms as host-galaxy photo-z priors, including the Self-Organizing Map redshifts (SOMPZ), Bayesian Photometric Redshifts (BPZ), and Directional-Neighbourhood Fitting (DNF) redshift estimates employed in the DES 3 × 2 point analyses. With detailed catalogue-level simulations of the DES 5-yr sample, we find that the simulated w can be recovered within ±0.02 when using SN+SOMPZ or DNF prior photo-z, smaller than the average statistical uncertainty for these samples of 0.03. With data, we obtain biases in w consistent with simulations within ~1σ for three of the five photo-z variants. We further evaluate how photo-z systematics interplay with photometric classification and find classification introduces a subdominant systematic component. This work lays the foundation for next-generation fully photometric SNe Ia cosmological analyses.

(cosmology:) dark energy↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of property covariance on cluster weak lensing scaling relations

ABSTRACT We present an investigation into a hitherto unexplored systematic that affects the accuracy of galaxy cluster mass estimates with weak gravitational lensing. Specifically, we study the covariance between the weak lensing signal, ΔΣ, and the ‘true’ cluster galaxy number count, Ngal, as measured within a spherical volume that is void of projection effects. By quantifying the impact of this covariance on mass calibration, this work reveals a significant source of systematic uncertainty. Using the MDPL2 simulation with galaxies traced by the SAGE semi-analytic model, we measure the intrinsic property covariance between these observables within the three-dimensional vicinity of the cluster, spanning a range of dynamical mass and redshift values relevant for optical cluster surveys. Our results reveal a negative covariance at small radial scales (R ≲ R200c) and a null covariance at large scales (R ≳ R200c) across most mass and redshift bins. We also find that this covariance results in a $2{\!-\!}3~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ bias in the halo mass estimates in most bins. Furthermore, by modelling Ngal and ΔΣ as multi-(log)-linear equations of secondary halo properties, we provide a quantitative explanation for the physical origin of the negative covariance at small scales. Specifically, we demonstrate that the Ngal–ΔΣ covariance can be explained by the secondary properties of haloes that probe their formation history. We attribute the difference between our results and the positive bias seen in other works with (mock)-cluster finders to projection effects. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for the covariance between observables in cluster mass estimation, which is crucial for obtaining accurate constraints on cosmological parameters.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗