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At least 145 records · Page 8

A measurement of stellar surface gravity hidden in radial velocity differences of comoving stars

The gravitational redshift induced by stellar surface gravity is notoriously difficult to measure for non-degenerate stars, since its amplitude is small in comparison with the typical Doppler shift induced by stellar radial velocity. In this study, we make use of the large observational data set of the Gaia mission to achieve a significant reduction of noise caused by these random stellar motions. By measuring the differences in velocities between the components of the pairs of comoving stars and wide binaries, in this work we are able to statistically measure the combined effects of gravitational redshift and convective blueshifting of spectral lines, and nullify the effect of the peculiar motions of the stars. For the subset of stars considered in this study, we find a positive correlation between the observed differences in Gaia radial velocities and the differences in surface gravity and convective blueshift inferred from effective temperature and luminosity measurements. The results rule out a null signal at the 5σ level for our full data set. Additionally, we study the subdominant effects of binary motion, and possible systematic errors in radial velocity measurements within Gaia. Results from the technique presented in this study are expected to improve significantly with data from the next Gaia data release. Such improvements could be used to constrain the mass–luminosity relation and stellar models that predict the magnitude of convective blueshift.

(stars:) binaries: general↗

Accurate model of the projected velocity distribution of galaxies in dark matter haloes

ABSTRACT We present a per cent-level accurate model of the line-of-sight velocity distribution of galaxies around dark matter haloes as a function of projected radius and halo mass. The model is developed and tested using synthetic galaxy catalogues generated with the UniverseMachine run on the Multi-Dark Planck 2 N-body simulations. The model decomposes the galaxies around a cluster into three kinematically distinct classes: orbiting, infalling, and interloping galaxies. We demonstrate that: (1) we can statistically distinguish between these three types of galaxies using only projected line-of-sight velocity information; (2) the halo edge radius inferred from the line-of-sight velocity dispersion is an excellent proxy for the three-dimensional halo edge radius; and (3) we can accurately recover the full velocity dispersion profile for each of the three populations of galaxies. Importantly, the velocity dispersion profiles of the orbiting and infalling galaxies contain five independent parameters – three distinct radial scales and two velocity dispersion amplitudes – each of which is correlated with mass. Thus, the velocity dispersion profile of galaxy clusters has inherent redundancies that allow us to perform non-trivial systematics checks from a single data set. We discuss several potential applications of our new model for detecting the edge radius and constraining cosmology and astrophysics using upcoming spectroscopic surveys.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Cosmic-ray Antinuclei as Messengers of New Physics: Status and Outlook for the New Decade

The precise measurement of cosmic-ray antinuclei serves as an important means for identifying the nature of dark matter and other new astrophysical phenomena, and could be used with other cosmic-ray species to understand cosmic-ray production and propagation in the Galaxy. For instance, low-energy antideuterons would provide a "smoking gun" signature of dark matter annihilation or decay, essentially free of astrophysical background. Studies in recent years have emphasized that models for cosmic-ray antideuterons must be considered together with the abundant cosmic antiprotons and any potential observation of antihelium. Therefore, a second dedicated Antideuteron Workshop was organized at UCLA in March 2019, bringing together a community of theorists and experimentalists to review the status of current observations of cosmic-ray antinuclei, the theoretical work towards understanding these signatures, and the potential of upcoming measurements to illuminate ongoing controversies. This review aims to synthesize this recent work and present implications for the upcoming decade of antinuclei observations and searches. This includes discussion of a possible dark matter signature in the AMS-02 antiproton spectrum, the most recent limits from BESS Polar-II on the cosmic antideuteron flux, and reports of candidate antihelium events by AMS-02; recent collider and cosmic-ray measurements relevant for antinuclei production models; the state of cosmic-ray transport models in light of AMS-02 and Voyager data; and the prospects for upcoming experiments, such as GAPS. This provides a roadmap for progress on cosmic antinuclei signatures of dark matter in the coming years.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

TDCOSMO. X. Automated modeling of nine strongly lensed quasars and comparison between lens-modeling software

When strong gravitational lenses are to be used as an astrophysical or cosmological probe, models of their mass distributions are often needed. We present a new, time-efficient automation code for the uniform modeling of strongly lensed quasars with GLEE, a lens-modeling software for multiband data. By using the observed positions of the lensed quasars and the spatially extended surface brightness distribution of the host galaxy of the lensed quasar, we obtain a model of the mass distribution of the lens galaxy. We applied this uniform modeling pipeline to a sample of nine strongly lensed quasars for which images were obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 of the Hubble Space Telescope. The models show well-reconstructed light components and a good alignment between mass and light centroids in most cases. We find that the automated modeling code significantly reduces the input time during the modeling process for the user. The time for preparing the required input files is reduced by a factor of 3 from ~3 h to about one hour. The active input time during the modeling process for the user is reduced by a factor of 10 from ~ 10 h to about one hour per lens system. This automated uniform modeling pipeline can efficiently produce uniform models of extensive lens-system samples that can be used for further cosmological analysis. A blind test that compared our results with those of an independent automated modeling pipeline based on the modeling software Lenstronomy revealed important lessons. Quantities such as Einstein radius, astrometry, mass flattening, and position angle are generally robustly determined. Other quantities, such as the radial slope of the mass density profile and predicted time delays, depend crucially on the quality of the data and on the accuracy with which the point spread function is reconstructed. Better data and/or a more detailed analysis are necessary to elevate our automated models to cosmography grade. Nevertheless, our pipeline enables the quick selection of lenses for follow-up and further modeling, which significantly speeds up the construction of cosmography-grade models. This important step forward will help us to take advantage of the increase in the number of lenses that is expected in the coming decade, which is an increase of several orders of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Photometric redshift estimation with convolutional neural networks and galaxy images: Case study of resolving biases in data-driven methods

Deep-learning models have been increasingly exploited in astrophysical studies, but these data-driven algorithms are prone to producing biased outputs that are detrimental for subsequent analyses. In this work, we investigate two main forms of biases: class-dependent residuals, and mode collapse. We do this in a case study, in which we estimate photometric redshift as a classification problem using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained with galaxy images and associated spectroscopic redshifts. We focus on point estimates and propose a set of consecutive steps for resolving the two biases based on CNN models, involving representation learning with multichannel outputs, balancing the training data, and leveraging soft labels. The residuals can be viewed as a function of spectroscopic redshift or photometric redshift, and the biases with respect to these two definitions are incompatible and should be treated individually. We suggest that a prerequisite for resolving biases in photometric space is resolving biases in spectroscopic space. Experiments show that our methods can better control biases than benchmark methods, and they are robust in various implementing and training conditions with high-quality data. Our methods hold promises for future cosmological surveys that require a good constraint of biases, and they may be applied to regression problems and other studies that make use of data-driven models. Nonetheless, the bias-variance tradeoff and the requirement of sufficient statistics suggest that we need better methods and optimized data usage strategies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

H 0 = 69.8 ± 1.3 km s - 1 Mpc - 1 , Ω m 0 = 0.288 ± 0.017 , and other constraints from lower-redshift, non-CMB, expansion-rate data

Here, we use updated Type Ia Pantheon+ supernova, baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble parameter (now also accounting for correlations) data, as well as new reverberation-measured C $\tiny{IV}$ quasar data, and quasar angular size, H $\tiny{II}$ starburst galaxy, reverberation-measured Mg $\tiny{II}$ quasar, and Amati correlated gamma-ray burst data to constrain cosmological parameters. We show that these data sets result in mutually consistent constraints and jointly use them to constrain cosmological parameters in six different spatially-flat and non-flat cosmological models. Our analysis provides summary model independent determinations of two key cosmological parameters: the Hubble constant, H 0 = 69.8 ± 1.3 km s -1 Mpc -1 , and the current non-relativistic matter density parameter, Ω m0 = 0.288 ± 0.017. Our summary error bars are 2.4 and 2.3 times those obtained using the flat ΛCDM model and Planck TT,TE,EE + lowE + lensing cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data. Our H 0 value is very consistent with that from the local expansion rate based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch and Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) data, is 2σ lower than that from the local expansion rate based on Cepheid and SN Ia data, and is 2σ higher than that in the flat ΛCDM model based on Planck TT,TE,EE + lowE + lensing CMB data. Our data compilation shows at most mild evidence for non-flat spatial hypersurfaces, but more significant evidence for dark energy dynamics, 2σ or larger in the spatially-flat dynamical dark energy models we study.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Domain Adaptation for Measurements of Strong Gravitational Lenses

Upcoming surveys are predicted to discover galaxy-scale strong lenses on the magnitude of 105, making deep learning methods necessary in lensing data analysis. Currently, there is insufficient real lensing data to train deep learning algorithms, but training only on simulated data results in poor performance on real data. Domain adaptation can bridge the gap between simulated and real datasets. We adopt domain adaptation on the estimation of Einstein radius in simulated galaxy-scale gravitational lensing images. We evaluate two domain adaptation techniques - domain adversarial neural networks (DANN) and maximum mean discrepancy (MMD). We train on a source domain of simulated lenses and apply it to a target domain with emulation of DES survey conditions. We show that both domain adaptation techniques can significantly improve the model performance on the more complex target domain datasets. Our results show the potential of using domain adaptation to perform analysis on future survey data with a deep neural network trained on simulated data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Photometric identification of compact galaxies, stars, and quasars using multiple neural networks

We present MargNet, a deep learning-based classifier for identifying stars, quasars, and compact galaxies using photometric parameters and images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 catalogue. MargNet consists of a combination of convolutional neural network and artificial neural network architectures. Using a carefully curated data set consisting of 240 000 compact objects and an additional 150 000 faint objects, the machine learns classification directly from the data, minimizing the need for human intervention. MargNet is the first classifier focusing exclusively on compact galaxies and performs better than other methods to classify compact galaxies from stars and quasars, even at fainter magnitudes. This model and feature engineering in such deep learning architectures will provide greater success in identifying objects in the ongoing and upcoming surveys, such as Dark Energy Survey and images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

MaNGA DynPop – I. Quality-assessed stellar dynamical modelling from integral-field spectroscopy of 10K nearby galaxies: a catalogue of masses, mass-to-light ratios, density profiles, and dark matter

ABSTRACT This is the first paper in our series on the combined analysis of the Dynamics and stellar Population (DynPop) for the MaNGA survey in the final SDSS Data Release 17 (DR17). Here, we present a catalogue of dynamically determined quantities for over 10 000 nearby galaxies based on integral-field stellar kinematics from the MaNGA survey. The dynamical properties are extracted using the axisymmetric Jeans Anisotropic Modelling (JAM) method, which was previously shown to be the most accurate for this kind of study. We assess systematic uncertainties using eight dynamical models with different assumptions. We use two orientations of the velocity ellipsoid: either cylindrically aligned JAMcyl or spherically aligned JAMsph. We also make four assumptions for the models’ dark versus luminous matter distributions: (1) mass-follows-light, (2) free NFW dark halo, (3) cosmologically constrained NFW halo, (4) generalized NFW dark halo, i.e. with free inner slope. In this catalogue, we provide the quantities related to the mass distributions (e.g. the density slopes and enclosed mass within a sphere of a given radius for total mass, stellar mass, and dark matter mass components). We also provide the complete models which can be used to compute the full luminous and mass distribution of each galaxy. Additionally, we visually assess the qualities of the models to help with model selections. We estimate the observed scatter in the measured quantities which decreases as expected with improvements in quality. For the best data quality, we find a remarkable consistency of measured quantities between different models, highlighting the robustness of the results.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Fast and accurate simulations of calorimeter showers with normalizing flows

In this study, we introduce caloflow, a fast detector simulation framework based on normalizing flows. For the first time, we demonstrate that normalizing flows can reproduce many-channel calorimeter showers with extremely high fidelity, providing a fresh alternative to computationally expensive geant4 simulations, as well as other state-of-the-art fast simulation frameworks based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) or variational autoencoders (VAEs). In addition to the usual histograms of physical features and images of calorimeter showers, we introduce a new metric for judging the quality of generative modeling: the performance of a classifier trained to differentiate real from generated images. We show that GAN-generated images can be identified by the classifier with nearly 100% accuracy, while images generated from caloflow are better able to fool the classifier. More broadly, normalizing flows offer several advantages compared to other state-of-the-art approaches (GANs and VAEs), including tractable likelihoods, stable and convergent training, and principled model selection. Normalizing flows also provide a bijective mapping between data and the latent space, which could have other applications beyond simulation, for example, to detector unfolding.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A Strong Gravitational Lens Is Worth a Thousand Dark Matter Halos: Inference on Small-scale Structure Using Sequential Methods

Strong gravitational lenses are a singular probe of the Universe’s small-scale structure—they are sensitive to the gravitational effects of low-mass (<10 10 M ⊙ ) halos even without a luminous counterpart. Recent strong-lensing analyses of dark matter structure rely on simulation-based inference (SBI). Modern SBI methods, which leverage neural networks as density estimators, have shown promise in extracting the halo-population signal. However, it is unclear whether the constraints from these models are limited by the methodology or the data. In this study, we introduce an accelerator-optimized simulation pipeline that can generate lens images with realistic subhalo populations in milliseconds. Leveraging this simulator, we identify the main limitation of our fiducial SBI analysis: training set size. We then adopt a sequential neural posterior estimation (SNPE) approach, allowing us to refine the training distribution to align with the observed data. Using only one-fifth as many mock Hubble Space Telescope images, SNPE matches the constraints on the low-mass halo population produced by our best nonsequential model. Our experiments suggest that an over 3 order-of-magnitude increase in training set size and GPU hours would be required to achieve an equivalent result without sequential methods. While the full potential of the existing lens sample remains to be explored, the notable improvement in constraining power enabled by our sequential approach highlights that current constraints are limited primarily by methodology and not the data itself. Moreover, our results emphasize the need to treat training set generation and model optimization as interconnected stages of any cosmological analysis using SBI.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Probing intergalactic intergalactic magnetic fields with LOFAR LoTSS DR2 data

We use Faraday rotation measurements from the latest catalog LoTSS DR2 from LOFAR to probe intergalactic magnetic fields. To identify the extragalactic component of the observed rotation measure (RM) we use two different techniques: residual rotation measure (RRM) and close radio pairs. For the RRM approach, we conclude that, despite smaller measurement errors in the LOFAR data, robust and conservative treatment of the systematic uncertainties in the Galactic contribution to RM results in the constraint on a homogeneous volume-filling magnetic field at the level 2.4 nG, slightly weaker than previous constraints from NVSS data, and does not allow to probe the presence of over-magnetized bubbles predicted by the AGN feedback model of the IllustrisTNG. Analyzing close radio pairs we found that in only 0.5% of our mock realizations of observed data, the expected contribution from the over-magnetized bubbles does not exceed LoTSS DR2 data.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Dark matter trigger for early dark energy coincidence

Current cosmological measurements present a persistent tension in the value of the current cosmic expansion rate, the Hubble constant, as inferred from cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS) data compared to that inferred from the classical distance ladder. Early dark energy (EDE), whose cosmological role is localized in time around the epoch of matter-radiation equality just prior to the release of the CMB photons, is designed to resolve this "Hubble tension". However, the model introduces a new coincidence problem: Why should the EDE dynamics occur near matter-radiation equality if EDE is decoupled from both matter and radiation? The resolution of this problem may lie in an early dark sector (EDS), wherein the dark matter mass is dependent on the EDE scalar field. In this work, we construct such an EDS model and show that it naturally resolves the EDE coincidence problem at the background level without any fine-tuning of the coupling to dark matter or of the initial conditions. When fitting to current cosmological data, including that from the local distance ladder, CMB, and LSS, our EDS maximum-likelihood model performs comparably to EDE for resolving the Hubble tension. However, fitting the Planck CMB data requires a specific range of initial field positions to balance the scalar field fluctuations that drive acoustic oscillations, providing testable differences with other EDE models and a platform for future model-building.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A VLA Survey of Late-time Radio Emission from Superluminous Supernovae and the Host Galaxies

We present the results of 3 GHz radio continuum observations of 23 superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) and their host galaxies by using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array conducted 5–21 yr after the explosions. The sample consists of 15 Type I and 8 Type II SLSNe at z < 0.3, providing one of the largest samples of SLSNe with late-time radio data. We detected radio emission from one SLSN (PTF10hgi) and five hosts with a significance of >5σ. No time variability is found in late-time radio light curves of the radio-detected sources in a timescale of years except for PTF10hgi, whose variability is reported in a separate study. Comparison of star formation rates (SFRs) derived from the 3 GHz flux densities with those derived from SED modeling based on UV–NIR data shows that four hosts have an excess of radio SFRs, suggesting obscured star formation. Upper limits for undetected hosts and stacked results show that the majority of the SLSN hosts do not have a significant obscured star formation. By using the 3 GHz upper limits, we constrain the parameters for afterglows arising from interaction between initially off-axis jets and circumstellar medium (CSM). Here, we found that the models with higher energies ( E iso ≳ several × 10 53 erg) and CSM densities ( n ≳ 0.01 cm –3 ) are excluded, but lower energies or CSM densities are not excluded with the current data. We also constrained the models of pulsar wind nebulae powered by a newly born magnetar for a subsample of SLSNe with model predictions in the literature.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The shock physics of giant impacts: Key requirements for the equations of state

We discuss major challenges in modeling giant impacts between planetary bodies, focusing on the equations of state (EOS). During the giant impact stage of planet formation, rocky planets are melted and partially vaporized. However, most EOS models fail to reproduce experimental constraints on the thermodynamic properties of the major minerals over the required phase space. Here, we present an updated version of the widely-used ANEOS model that includes a user-defined heat capacity limit in the thermal free energy term. Our revised model for forsterite (Mg 2 SiO 4 ), a common proxy for the mantles of rocky planets, provides a better fit to material data over most of the phase space of giant impacts. We discuss the limitations of this model and the Tillotson equation of state, a commonly used alternative model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Forward Modeling of 3-D Ion Properties in Jupiter’s Magnetosphere Using Juno/JADE-I Data

The Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment Ion sensor (JADE-I) on NASA’s Juno mission provides in-situ measurements of ions from 0.1 to 46.2 keV/q inside Jupiter’s magnetosphere. JADE-I is used to study the plasma with two types of datasets from the same measurement: Time-of-flight (TOF) and SPECIES. The TOF dataset provides mass-per-charge measurements with a range of 1–64 amu/q but oversamples particles over 6π steradian viewing per spacecraft spin and has little directional information. On the other hand, the SPECIES dataset can provide a good measurement of the flow direction but does not provide mass-per-charge information due to the telemetry limit. In this study, we developed a 2-step forward modeling method that combines the advantages and avoids the disadvantages of TOF and SPECIES data to derive the 3-D properties of heavy ions. Assuming that the ion velocity distribution can be described with the kappa distribution, we first perform the forward model fit of the TOF data to calculate the relative abundance of heavy ion species. Then we fix the relative abundance and perform the second forward model fit on the SPECIES data. Here, using this method, we obtain the densities of different heavy ions, the shared temperature and kappa value, and the 3-D flow velocity vector. Some data examples of the equatorial plasma disk before Perijove 24 are included to demonstrate the method. Plasma properties can then be mapped to explore spatial and temporal variabilities in Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

STag. II. Classification of Serendipitous Supernovae Observed by Galaxy Redshift Surveys

With the number of supernovae observed expected to drastically increase thanks to large-scale surveys like the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), it is necessary that the tools we use to classify these objects keep up with this increase. We previously created Supernova Tagging and Classification (STag) to address this problem by employing machine learning techniques alongside logistic regression in order to assign “tags” to spectra based on spectral features. STag II is a continuation of this work, which now makes use of model supernova spectra combined with real DESI spectra in order to train STag to better deal with realistic data. Furthermore, we also make use of the rlap score as a trustworthiness cut, making for a more robust and accurate supernova classifier than before.

Astrostatistics techniques↗

Using the Tilted flat-ΛCDM and the Untilted Non-flat ΛCDM Inflation Models to Measure Cosmological Parameters from a Compilation of Observational Data

We use the physically consistent tilted spatially flat and untilted non-flat ΛCDM inflation models to constrain cosmological parameter values with the Planck 2015 cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data and recent SNe Ia measurements, baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO) data, growth rate observations, and Hubble parameter measurements. The most dramatic consequence of including the four non-CMB data sets is the significant strengthening of the evidence for non-flatness in the non-flat ΛCDM model, from 1.8σ for the CMB data alone to 5.1σ for the full data combination. The BAO data is the most powerful of the non-CMB data sets in more tightly constraining model-parameter values and in favoring a spatially closed universe in which spatial curvature contributes about a percent to the current cosmological energy budget. The untilted non-flat ΛCDM model better fits the large-angle CMB temperature anisotropy angular spectrum and is more consistent with the Dark Energy Survey constraints on the current value of the rms amplitude of mass fluctuations (σ 8 ) as a function of the current value of the nonrelativistic matter-density parameter (Ω m ) but does not provide as good a fit to the smaller-angle CMB temperature anisotropy data, as does the tilted flat-ΛCDM model. Some measured cosmological parameter values differ significantly between the two models, including the reionization optical depth and the baryonic matter density parameter, both of whose 2σ ranges (in the two models) are disjointed or almost so.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗