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DOE OSTI2025

Frequency-Selectable Laser Source (FLS) for Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments measure remnant radiation from the early universe and use that data to determine fundamental properties of the universe. We can constrain key parameters, such as \textit{r}, the cosmic tensor-to-scalar ratio, and $N_\text{eff}$, the effective number of relativistic species, by analyzing the CMB power spectra. Improving our measurements of the CMB requires improving our instrument systematics, one of the most important of which is detector bandpass. Current experiments use a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) to measure bandpass. However, the FTS is systematics limited, and cannot achieve the accuracy needed to make improved CMB measurements. For this reason, we are developing a new instrument, the Frequency-Selectable Laser Source (FLS) to decrease the uncertainty in bandpass by an order of magnitude. In this paper, we describe work completed to support the version 2 upgrade to the FLS. Using ray-tracing software, we modeled the FLS optics to set physical tolerances for the new design. We also discuss the laser calibration, and future work to be completed in further development of the FLS upgrade.

Rosen-Turits, Gabriel M.↗
DOE OSTI2019

Heavy flavour dynamics in event-by-event viscous hydrodynamic backgrounds

We investigate the effects of (2+1)d event-by-event fluctuating hydrodynamic backgrounds on the nuclear modification factor and momentum anisotropies of heavy-flavor mesons. Using the state-of-the-art D and B mesons modular simulation code (the so-called DAB-mod), updated recently with heavy-light quark coalescence, we perform a systematic comparison of different transport equations, including two energy loss models and a relativistic Langevin model with two drag parametrizations. We present the resulting D 0 meson R AA , v 2 and v 3 , using the multiparticle cumulant method, in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ and compare them to the latest experimental data. We investigate the $v_2\{4\}/v_2\{2\}$ ratio as a function of centrality for different initial conditions (MCKLN vs. Trento) and different system geometries and sizes (coming from Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$, spherical and prolate Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.44$ TeV).

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Flexible Tool for Beam Induced Background Simulations at a Muon Collider

A Muon Collider represents a very interesting possibility for a future machine to explore the energy frontier in particle physics.However, to reach the needed luminosity, beam intensities of the order of $10^{9-11}$ muons per bunch are needed. In this context, the Beam Induced Background must be taken into account for its effects on the magnets and on the detector. Several optimizations can be conceived with the aim to mitigate them. In this view, it is of crucial importance to develop a flexible tool that allows to easily reconstruct the machine geometry in a Monte Carlo code, allowing to simulate in detail the interaction of muon decay products in the machine, while being able to change the machine optics itself to find the best configuration.In this contribution, a possible approach to such a purpose is presented, based on FLUKA for the Monte Carlo simulation and on LineBuilder for the geometry reconstruction.First results for the 1.5TeV machine optics developed by the MAP collaboration are discussed in this paper.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Chapter 1: Background and Introduction

Langholtz, M. H. 2024. “Chapter 1: Background and Introduction.” In 2023 Billion‐Ton Report. M. H. Langholtz (Lead). Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. doi: 10.23720/BT2023/2316166.

BT23↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cosmic Ray Background Removal With Deep Neural Networks in SBND

In liquid argon time projection chambers exposed to neutrino beams and running on or near surface levels, cosmic muons, and other cosmic particles are incident on the detectors while a single neutrino-induced event is being recorded. In practice, this means that data from surface liquid argon time projection chambers will be dominated by cosmic particles, both as a source of event triggers and as the majority of the particle count in true neutrino-triggered events. In this work, we demonstrate a novel application of deep learning techniques to remove these background particles by applying deep learning on full detector images from the SBND detector, the near detector in the Fermilab Short-Baseline Neutrino Program. We use this technique to identify, on a pixel-by-pixel level, whether recorded activity originated from cosmic particles or neutrino interactions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Cosmic variance in the nanohertz gravitational wave background

We use large N-body simulations and empirical scaling relations between dark matter halos, galaxies, and supermassive black holes (SMBBHs) to estimate the formation rates of SMBBH binaries and the resulting low-frequency stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB). We find this GWB to be relatively insensitive (≲10%) to cosmological parameters, with only slight variation between wmap5 and Planck cosmologies. We find that uncertainty in the astrophysical scaling relations changes the amplitude of the GWB by a factor of ∼2. Current observational limits are already constraining this predicted range of models. We investigate the Poisson variance in the amplitude of the GWB for randomly generated populations of SMBBHs, finding a scatter of order unity per frequency bin below 10 nHz, and increasing to a factor of ∼10 near 100 nHz. This variance is a result of the rarity of the most massive binaries, which dominate the signal, and acts as a fundamental uncertainty on the amplitude of the underlying power law spectrum. This Poisson uncertainty dominates at ≳20 nHz, while at lower frequencies the dominant uncertainty is related to our poor understanding of the astrophysical scaling relations, although very low frequencies may be dominated by uncertainties related to the final parsec problem and the processes which drive binaries to the gravitational wave dominated regime. Cosmological effects are negligible at all frequencies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The next generation virgo cluster survey. XX. Redgold background galaxy cluster detections

We build a background cluster candidate catalog from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) using our detection algorithm RedGOLD. The NGVS covers 104 deg{sup 2} of the Virgo cluster in the u{sup ∗},g,r,i,z-bandpasses to a depth of g ∼ 25.7 mag (5σ). Part of the survey was not covered or has shallow observations in the r band. We build two cluster catalogs: one using all bandpasses, for the fields with deep r-band observations (∼20 deg{sup 2}), and the other using four bandpasses (u{sup ∗},g,i,z) for the entire NGVS area. Based on our previous Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey W1 studies, we estimate that both of our catalogs are ∼100% (∼70%) complete and ∼80% pure, at z ≤ 0.6 (z ≲ 1), for galaxy clusters with masses of M ≳ 10{sup 14} M {sub ⊙}. We show that when using four bandpasses, though the photometric redshift accuracy is lower, RedGOLD detects massive galaxy clusters up to z ∼ 1 with completeness and purity similar to the five-band case. This is achieved when taking into account the bias in the richness estimation, which is ∼40% lower at 0.5 ≤ z < 0.6 and ∼20% higher at 0.6 < z < 0.8, with respect to the five-band case. RedGOLD recovers all the X-ray clusters in the area with mass M {sub 500} > 1.4 × 10{sup 14} M {sub ⊙} and 0.08 < z < 0.5. Because of our different cluster richness limits and the NGVS depth, our catalogs reach lower masses than the published redMaPPer cluster catalog over the area, and we recover ∼90%–100% of its detections.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

LOW-RESOLUTION NEAR-INFRARED STELLAR SPECTRA OBSERVED BY THE COSMIC INFRARED BACKGROUND EXPERIMENT (CIBER)

We present near-infrared (0.8–1.8 μm) spectra of 105 bright (m{sub J} < 10) stars observed with the low-resolution spectrometer on the rocket-borne Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment. As our observations are performed above the Earth's atmosphere, our spectra are free from telluric contamination, which makes them a unique resource for near-infrared spectral calibration. Two-Micron All-Sky Survey photometry information is used to identify cross-matched stars after reduction and extraction of the spectra. We identify the spectral types of the observed stars by comparing them with spectral templates from the Infrared Telescope Facility library. All the observed spectra are consistent with late F to M stellar spectral types, and we identify various infrared absorption lines.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

New Variable Stars in NGC 6652 and Its Background Sagittarius Stream

We conducted a variable star search on the metal-rich Galactic globular cluster NGC 6652 using archival Gemini-S/Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph data. We report the discovery of nine new variable stars in the NGC 6652 field, of which we classify six as eclipsing binaries and one as an SX Phoenicis star, leaving two variables without classification. Using proper motions from Gaia DR2 and Hubble Space Telescope, albeit with some uncertainties, we find that the cluster, the field, and the background Sagittarius stream each have three of these variables. We also reassess the membership of known variables based on the Gaia proper motions, confirming the existence of one RR Lyrae star in the cluster.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

MUSE gas flow and wind (megaflow). I. First MUSE results on background quasars

The physical properties of galactic winds are one of the keys to understand galaxy formation and evolution. These properties can be constrained thanks to background quasar lines of sight (LOS) passing near star-forming galaxies (SFGs). We present the first results of the MusE GAs FLOw and Wind survey obtained from two quasar fields, which have eight Mg ii absorbers of which three have rest equivalent width greater than 0.8 Å. With the new Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), we detect six (75%) Mg ii host galaxy candidates within a radius of 30″ from the quasar LOS. Out of these six galaxy–quasar pairs, from geometrical argument, one is likely probing galactic outflows, where two are classified as “ambiguous,” two are likely probing extended gaseous disks and one pair seems to be a merger. We focus on the wind-pair and constrain the outflow using a high-resolution quasar spectra from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph. Assuming the metal absorption to be due to ga;s flowing out of the detected galaxy through a cone along the minor axis, we find outflow velocities in the order of ≈150 km s{sup −1} (i.e., smaller than the escape velocity) with a loading factor, η= M-dot {sub out}/SFR, of ≈0.7. We see evidence for an open conical flow, with a low-density inner core. In the future, MUSE will provide us with about 80 multiple galaxy−quasar pairs in two dozen fields.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

The ALMA spectroscopic survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: continuum number counts, resolved 1.2 mm extragalactic background, and properties of the faintest dusty star-forming galaxies

We present an analysis of a deep (1σ = 13 μJy) cosmological 1.2 mm continuum map based on ASPECS, the ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. In the 1 arcmin{sup 2} covered by ASPECS we detect nine sources at >3.5σ significance at 1.2 mm. Our ALMA-selected sample has a median redshift of z=1.6±0.4, with only one galaxy detected at z > 2 within the survey area. This value is significantly lower than that found in millimeter samples selected at a higher flux density cutoff and similar frequencies. Most galaxies have specific star formation rates (SFRs) similar to that of main-sequence galaxies at the same epoch, and we find median values of stellar mass and SFRs of 4.0×10{sup 10} M{sub ⊙} and ∼40 M{sub ⊙} yr{sup −1}, respectively. Using the dust emission as a tracer for the interstellar medium (ISM) mass, we derive depletion times that are typically longer than 300 Myr, and we find molecular gas fractions ranging from ∼0.1 to 1.0. As noted by previous studies, these values are lower than those using CO-based ISM estimates by a factor of ∼2. The 1 mm number counts (corrected for fidelity and completeness) are in agreement with previous studies that were typically restricted to brighter sources. With our individual detections only, we recover 55% ± 4% of the extragalactic background light (EBL) at 1.2 mm measured by the Planck satellite, and we recover 80% ± 7% of this EBL if we include the bright end of the number counts and additional detections from stacking. The stacked contribution is dominated by galaxies at z∼1--2, with stellar masses of (1–3) × 10{sup 10} M {sub ⊙}. For the first time, we are able to characterize the population of galaxies that dominate the EBL at 1.2 mm.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Chandra COSMOS Legacy Survey: Energy Spectrum of the Cosmic X-Ray Background and Constraints on Undetected Populations

Using Chandra observations in the 2.15 deg{sup 2} COSMOS-legacy field, we present one of the most accurate measurements of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) spectrum to date in the [0.3–7] keV energy band. The CXB has three distinct components: contributions from two Galactic collisional thermal plasmas at kT ∼ 0.27 and 0.07 keV and an extragalactic power law with a photon spectral index Γ = 1.45 ± 0.02. The 1 keV normalization of the extragalactic component is 10.91 ± 0.16 keV cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} sr{sup −1} keV{sup −1}. Removing all X-ray-detected sources, the remaining unresolved CXB is best fit by a power law with normalization 4.18 ± 0.26 keV cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} sr{sup −1} keV{sup −1} and photon spectral index Γ = 1.57 ± 0.10. Removing faint galaxies down to i{sub AB}∼27--28 leaves a hard spectrum with Γ∼1.25 and a 1 keV normalization of ∼1.37 keV cm{sup −2} s{sup −1} sr{sup −1} keV{sup −1}. This means that ∼91% of the observed CXB is resolved into detected X-ray sources and undetected galaxies. Unresolved sources that contribute ∼8%–9% of the total CXB show marginal evidence of being harder and possibly more obscured than resolved sources. Another ∼1% of the CXB can be attributed to still undetected star-forming galaxies and absorbed active galactic nuclei. According to these limits, we investigate a scenario where early black holes totally account for non-source CXB fraction and constrain some of their properties. In order to not exceed the remaining CXB and the z∼6 accreted mass density, such a population of black holes must grow in Compton-thick envelopes with N{sub H} > 1.6 × 10{sup 25} cm{sup −2} and form in extremely low-metallicity environments (Z{sub ⊙})∼10{sup −3}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Radiative Transfer in a Translucent Cloud Illuminated by an Extended Background Source

We discuss the radiative transfer theory for translucent clouds illuminated by an extended background source. First, we derive a rigorous solution based on the assumption that multiple scatterings produce an isotropic flux. Then we derive a more manageable analytic approximation showing that it nicely matches the results of the rigorous approach. To validate our model, we compare our predictions with accurate laboratory measurements for various types of well-characterized grains, including purely dielectric and strongly absorbing materials representative of astronomical icy and metallic grains, respectively, finding excellent agreement without the need to add free parameters. We use our model to explore the behavior of an astrophysical cloud illuminated by a diffuse source with dust grains having parameters typical of the classic ISM grains of Draine and Lee and protoplanetary disks, with an application to the dark silhouette disk 114–426 in Orion Nebula. We find that the scattering term modifies the transmitted radiation, both in terms of intensity (extinction) and shape (reddening) of the spectral distribution. In particular, for small optical thickness, our results show that scattering makes reddening almost negligible at visible wavelengths. Once the optical thickness increases enough and the probability of scattering events becomes close to or larger than 1, reddening becomes present but is appreciably modified with respect to the standard expression for line-of-sight absorption. Moreover, variations of the grain refractive index, in particular the amount of absorption, also play an important role in changing the shape of the spectral transmission curve, with dielectric grains showing the minimum amount of reddening.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Preheating of the Intergalactic Medium by Gravitational Collapse and Ultraviolet Background

The preheating of the intergalactic medium by structure collapse and ultraviolet background (UVB) is investigated in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. When gravitational collapse is the sole heating mechanism, we find that (1) 60% and 45% of the IGM are heated up to S > 8 and 17 keV cm{sup 2}, respectively, at z = 0, but the fractions drop rapidly to a few percent at z = 2; (2) the entropy of the circumhalo gas S{sub cir} is higher than the virial entropy for more than 75% of the halos with masses M<10{sup 11.5} M{sub ⊙} since z = 2, but the fraction higher than the entropy, S{sub pr}, required in the preventive model of galaxy formation is only 15%–20% for halos with M<10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙} at z = 0, and decreases as redshift increases; (3) assuming a metallicity of Z⩽0.03 Z{sub ⊙}, the fraction of halos whose circumhalo gas has a cooling time longer than the Hubble time t{sub cool,cir}>t{sub H} is merely 5%–10% at z≲0.5, and even less at z⩾1 for halos with M<10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙}; and (4) gas in the filaments undergoes the strongest preheating. Furthermore, we show that the UVB cannot enhance the fraction of the IGM with S>17 keV cm{sup 2}, but can increase the fraction of low-mass halos (<10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙}) having S{sub cir}>S{sub pr} to ∼70% at z = 0 and that having t{sub cool,cir}>t{sub H} to 15%–30% at z≲0.5. Our results indicate that preheating due to gravitational collapse and UVB is inadequate to fulfill the needs of the preventative model, especially for halos with 10{sup 10.5} M{sub ⊙}<M<10{sup 11.5} M{sub ⊙}. Nevertheless, these two mechanisms might cause large-scale galactic conformity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Halo Mass of Optically Luminous Quasars at z ≈ 1–2 Measured via Gravitational Deflection of the Cosmic Microwave Background

We measure the average deflection of cosmic microwave background photons by quasars at $\langle z\rangle =1.7$. Our sample is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to cover the redshift range 0.9 ≤ z ≤ 2.2 with absolute i-band magnitudes of M i ≤ –24 (K-corrected to z = 2). A stack of nearly 200,000 targets reveals an 8σ detection of Planck's estimate of the lensing convergence toward the quasars. We fit the signal with a model comprising a Navarro–Frenk–White density profile and a two-halo term accounting for correlated large-scale structure, which dominates the observed signal. The best-fitting model is described by an average halo mass ${\mathrm{log}}_{10}({M}_{{\rm{h}}}/{h}^{-1}\,{M}_{\odot })=12.6\pm 0.2$ and linear bias b = 2.7 ± 0.3 at $\langle z\rangle =1.7$, in excellent agreement with clustering studies. Here, we also report a hint, at a 90% confidence level, of a correlation between the convergence amplitude and luminosity, indicating that quasars brighter than M i lesssim –26 reside in halos of typical mass ${M}_{{\rm{h}}}\approx {10}^{13}\,{h}^{-1}\,{M}_{\odot }$, scaling roughly as ${M}_{{\rm{h}}}\propto {L}_{\mathrm{opt}}^{3/4}$ at ${M}_{i}\lesssim -24$ mag, in good agreement with physically motivated quasar demography models. Although we acknowledge that this luminosity dependence is a marginal result, the observed M h –L opt relationship could be interpreted as a reflection of the cutoff in the distribution of black hole accretion rates toward high Eddington ratios: the weak trend of M h with L opt observed at low luminosity becomes stronger for the most powerful quasars, which tend to be accreting close to the Eddington limit.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gamma-Rays from Kilonovae and the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background

The recent detection of the gravitational-wave event GW170817, produced by the coalescence of two neutron stars, and of its optical–infrared counterpart, powered by the radioactive decay of r-process elements, has opened a new window onto gamma-ray astronomy: the direct detection of photons coming from such decays. In this work, we calculate the contribution of kilonovae to the diffuse gamma-ray background in the MeV range, using recent results on the spectra of the gamma-rays emitted in individual events, and we compare it with that from other sources. We find that the contribution from kilonovae is not dominant in such an energy range, but within current uncertainties, and its addition to other sources might help to fit the observational data.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Flat-spectrum Radio Quasars and BL Lacs Dominate the Anisotropy of the Unresolved Gamma-Ray Background

We analyze the angular power spectrum (APS) of the unresolved gamma-ray background (UGRB) emission and combine it with the measured properties of the resolved gamma-ray sources of the Fermi-LAT 4FGL catalog. Our goals are to dissect the composition of the gamma-ray sky and to establish the relevance of different classes of source populations of active galactic nuclei in determining the observed size of the UGRB anisotropy, especially at low energies. We find that, under physical assumptions for the spectral energy distribution, i.e., by using the 4FGL catalog data as a prior, two populations are required to fit the APS data, namely flat-spectrum radio quasars at low energies and BL Lacs at higher energies. The inferred luminosity functions agree well with the extrapolation of the flat-spectrum radio quasar and BL Lac ones obtained from the 4FLG catalog. We use these luminosity functions to calculate the UGRB intensity from blazars, finding a contribution of 20% at 1 GeV and 30% above 10 GeV. Finally, bounds on an additional gamma-ray emission due to annihilating dark matter are also derived.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Probing the Extragalactic Mid-infrared Background with HAWC

The extragalactic background light (EBL) contains all the radiation emitted by nuclear and accretion processes in stars and compact objects since the epoch of recombination. Measuring the EBL density directly is challenging, especially in the near-to-far-infrared wave band, mainly due to the zodiacal light foreground. Instead, gamma-ray astronomy offers the possibility to indirectly set limits on the EBL by studying the effects of gamma-ray absorption in the very high energy (VHE: >100 GeV) spectra of distant blazars. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma Ray Observatory (HAWC) is one of the few instruments sensitive to gamma rays with energies above 10 TeV. This offers the opportunity to probe the EBL in the near/mid-IR region: λ = 1–100 μm. In this study, we fit physically motivated emission models to Fermi-LAT gigaelectronvolt data to extrapolate the intrinsic teraelectronvolt spectra of blazars. We then simulate a large number of absorbed spectra for different randomly generated EBL model shapes and calculate Bayesian credible bands in the EBL intensity space by comparing and testing the agreement between the absorbed spectra and HAWC extragalactic observations of two blazars. The resulting bands are in agreement with current EBL lower and upper limits, showing a downward trend toward higher wavelength values λ > 10 μm also observed in previous measurements.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗