Search

This paper presents the gravitational-wave measurement of the Hubble constant (H 0) using the detections from the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detector network. The presence of the transient electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star GW170817 led to the first standard-siren measurement of H 0. Here we additionally use binary black hole detections in conjunction with galaxy catalogs and report a joint measurement. Our updated measurement is H 0 = km s-1 Mpc-1 (68.3% of the highest density posterior interval with a flat-in-log prior) which is an improvement by a factor of 1.04 (about 4%) over the GW170817-only value of km s-1 Mpc-1. A significant additional contribution currently comes from GW170814, a loud and well-localized detection from a part of the sky thoroughly covered by the Dark Energy Survey. With numerous detections anticipated over the upcoming years, an exhaustive understanding of other systematic effects are also going to become increasingly important. These results establish the path to cosmology using gravitational-wave observations with and without transient electromagnetic counterparts., 0, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

We utilize recent NuSTAR observations (co-added depth $\approx55$-120 ks) of PG $1001+054$, PG $1254+047$, and PHL 1811 to constrain their hard X-ray ($\gtrsim5$ keV) weakness and spectral shapes, and thus to investigate the nature of their extreme X-ray weakness. These quasars showed very weak soft X-ray emission, and they were proposed to be intrinsically X-ray weak, with the X-ray coronae producing weak continuum emission relative to their optical/UV emission. However, the new observations suggest an alternative explanation. The NuSTAR 3-24 keV spectral shapes for PG $1001+054$ and PHL 1811 are likely flat (effective power-law photon indices $\Gamma_{\rm eff}=1.0^{+0.5}_{-0.6}$ and $\Gamma_{\rm eff}=1.4^{+0.8}_{-0.7}$, respectively), while the shape is nominal for PG $1254+047$ ($\Gamma_{\rm eff}=1.8\pm0.3$). PG $1001+054$ and PHL 1811 are significantly weak at hard X-ray energies (by factors of $\approx26$-74 at rest-frame 8 keV) compared to the expectations from their optical/UV emission, while PG $1254+047$ is only hard X-ray weak by a factor of $\approx3$. We suggest that X-ray obscuration is present in all three quasars. We propose that, as an alternative to the intrinsic X-ray weakness + X-ray obscuration scenario, the soft and hard X-ray weakness of these quasars can be uniformly explained under an obscuration-only scenario. This model provides adequate descriptions of the multi-epoch soft and hard X-ray data of these quasars, with variable column density and leaked fraction of the partial-covering absorber. We suggest that the absorber is the clumpy dust-free wind launched from the accretion disk. These quasars probably have super-Eddington accretion rates that drive powerful and high-density winds., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The current tension between the direct and the early Universe measurements of the Hubble Constant, $H_0$, requires detailed scrutiny of all the data and methods used in the studies on both sides of the debate. The Cepheids in the type Ia supernova (SNIa) host galaxy NGC 5584 played a key role in the local measurement of $H_0$. The SH0ES project used the observations of this galaxy to derive a relation between Cepheids' periods and ratios of their amplitudes in different optical bands of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and used these relations to analyse the light curves of the Cepheids in around half of the current sample of local SNIa host galaxies. In this work, we present an independent detailed analysis of the Cepheids in NGC 5584. We employ different tools for our photometric analysis and a completely different method for our light curve analysis, and we do not find a systematic difference between our period and mean magnitude measurements compared to those reported by SH0ES. By adopting a period-luminosity relation calibrated by the Cepheids in the Milky Way, we measure a distance modulus $\mu=31.810\pm0.047$ (mag) which is in agreement with $\mu=31.786\pm0.046$ (mag) measured by SH0ES. In addition, the relations we find between periods and amplitude ratios of the Cepheids in NGC 5584 are significantly tighter than those of SH0ES and their potential impact on the direct $H_0$ measurement will be investigated in future studies., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal on 17-Feb-2021

Consistency checks of cosmological data sets are an important tool because they may suggest systematic errors or the type of modifications to $\Lambda$CDM necessary to resolve current tensions. In this work, we derive an analytic method for calculating the level of correlations between model parameters from two correlated cosmological data sets, which complements more computationally expensive simulations. This method is an extension of the Fisher analysis that assumes a Gaussian likelihood and a known data covariance matrix. We apply this method to the SPTpol temperature and polarization CMB spectra (TE and EE). We find weak correlations between $\Lambda$CDM parameters with a 9$\%$ correlation between the TE-only and EE-only constraints on $H_0$ and a 25$\%$ and 32$\%$ correlation for log($A_s$) and $n_s$ respectively. Despite the negative correlations between the TE and EE power spectra, the correlations in the parameters are positive. The TE-EE parameter differences are consistent with zero, with a PTE of 0.53, in contrast to the PTE of 0.017 reported by SPTpol for the consistency of the TE and EE power spectra with $\Lambda$CDM. Using simulations we find that the results of these two tests are independent and that this difference can arise simply from statistical fluctuations. Ignoring correlations in the TT-TE and TE-EE comparisons biases the $\chi^2$ low, artificially making parameters look more consistent. Therefore, we conclude that these correlations need to be accounted for when performing internal consistency checks of the TT vs TE vs EE power spectra for future CMB analyses., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Published by ApJ

Axions/axion-like particles (ALPs) are a well motivated extension of the Standard Model and are generic within String Theory. The X-ray transparency of the intracluster medium (ICM) in galaxy clusters is a powerful probe of light ALPs (with mass $, Comment: Published in The Astrophysical Journal, 2020, vol 890, pp59. This posting corrects typos in equation (2) and the likelihood function just prior to equation (3). Typos were introduced into the draft at late stage and the analysis is correct

[Abridged] Tight correlations between supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) and the properties of the host galaxy have useful implications for our understanding of the growth of SMBHs and evolution of galaxies. Here, we present newly observed correlations between $M_{\rm BH}$ and the host galaxy total UV$-$ [3.6] color ($\mathcal{C_{\rm UV,tot}}$, Pearson's r = $0.6-0.7$) for a sample of 67 galaxies (20 early-type galaxies and 47 late-type galaxies) with directly measured $M_{\rm BH}$ in the GALEX/S$^{4}$G survey. The colors are carefully measured in a homogeneous manner using the galaxies' FUV, NUV and 3.6 $\micron$ magnitudes and their multi-component structural decompositions in the literature. We find that more massive SMBHs are hosted by (early- and late-type) galaxies with redder colors, but the $M_{\rm BH}- \mathcal{C_{\rm UV,tot}}$ relations for the two morphological types have slopes that differ at $\sim 2 \sigma$ level. Early-type galaxies define a red sequence in the $M_{\rm BH}- \mathcal{C_{\rm UV,tot}}$ diagrams, while late-type galaxies trace a blue sequence. Within the assumption that the specific star formation rate of a galaxy (sSFR) is well traced by $L_{\rm UV}/L_{\rm 3.6}$, it follows that the SMBH masses for late-type galaxies exhibit a steeper dependence on sSFR than those for early-type galaxies. The $M_{\rm BH}- \mathcal{C_{\rm UV,tot}}$ and $M_{\rm BH}-L_{\rm 3.6,tot}$ relations for the sample galaxies reveal a comparable level of vertical scatter in the log $M_{\rm BH}$ direction, roughly $5\%-27\%$ more than the vertical scatter of the $M_{\rm BH}-\sigma$ relation. Our $M_{\rm BH}- \mathcal{C_{\rm UV,tot}}$ relations suggest different channels of SMBH growth for early- and late-type galaxies, consistent with their distinct formation and evolution scenarios., Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

The intergalactic medium is expected to clump on scales down to $10^4-10^8$ M$_{\odot}$ before the onset of reionization. The impact of these small-scale structures on reionization is poorly understood despite the modern understanding that gas clumpiness limits the growth of H II regions. We use a suite of radiation-hydrodynamics simulations that capture the $\sim 10^4$ $M_\odot$ Jeans mass of unheated gas to study density fluctuations during reionization. Our simulations track the complex ionization and hydrodynamical response of gas in the wake of ionization fronts. The clumping factor of ionized gas (proportional to the recombination rate) rises to a peak value of $5-20$ approximately $\Delta t = 10$ Myr after ionization front passage, depending on the incident intensity, redshift, and degree to which the gas had been pre-heated by the first X-ray sources. The clumping factor reaches its relaxed value of $\approx 3$ by $\Delta t = 300$ Myr. The mean free path of Lyman-limit photons evolves in unison, being up to several times shorter in un-relaxed, recently reionized regions compared to those that were reionized much earlier. Assessing the impact of this response on the global reionizaton process, we find that un-relaxed gaseous structures boost the total number of recombinations by $\approx 50$ % and lead to spatial fluctuations in the mean free path that persist appreciably for several hundred million years after the completion of reionization., Comment: Matches published version

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) monopole temperature evolves with the inverse of the cosmological scale factor, independent of many cosmological assumptions. With sufficient sensitivity, real-time cosmological observations could thus be used to measure the local expansion rate of the Universe using the cooling of the CMB. We forecast how well a CMB spectrometer could determine the Hubble constant via this method. The primary challenge of such a mission lies in the separation of Galactic and extra-Galactic foreground signals from the CMB at extremely high precision. However, overcoming these obstacles could potentially provide an independent, highly robust method to shed light on the current low-/high-$z$ Hubble tension. An experiment with 3000 linearly spaced bins between 5 GHz and 3 THz with a sensitivity of 1 $\mathrm{mJy\sqrt{yr}~sr^{-1}}$ per bin, could measure $H_0$ to 3% over a 10 year mission, given current foreground complexity. This sensitivity would also enable high-precision measurements of the expected $\Lambda$CDM spectral distortions, but remains futuristic at this stage., Comment: Authors' accepted version uploaded. (Published in ApJ)

We present optical and near-infrared ($ugriYJH$) photometry of host galaxies of Type Ia supernovae (SN~Ia) observed by the \textit{Carnegie Supernova Project-I}. We determine host galaxy stellar masses and, for the first time, study their correlation with SN~Ia standardized luminosity across optical and near-infrared ($uBgVriYJH$) bands. In the individual bands, we find that SNe~Ia are more luminous in more massive hosts with luminosity offsets ranging between $-0.07 \pm0.03$ mag to $-0.15\pm0.04$ mag after light-curve standardization. The slope of the SN~Ia Hubble residual-host mass relation is negative across all $uBgVriYJH$ bands with values ranging between $-0.036\pm 0.025$ mag/dex to $-0.097\pm 0.027$ mag/dex -- implying that SNe~Ia in more massive galaxies are brighter than expected. The near-constant observed correlations across optical and near-infrared bands indicate that dust may not play a significant role in the observed luminosity offset--host mass correlation. We measure projected separations between SNe~Ia and their host centers, and find that SNe~Ia that explode beyond a projected 10 kpc have a $\rm 30\% \ to \ 50\%$ reduction of the dispersion in Hubble residuals across all bands -- making them a more uniform subset of SNe~Ia. Dust in host galaxies, peculiar velocities of nearby SN~Ia, or a combination of both may drive this result as the color excesses of SNe~Ia beyond 10 kpc are found to be generally lower than those interior, but there is also a diminishing trend of the dispersion as we exclude nearby events. We do not find that SN~Ia average luminosity varies significantly when they are grouped in various host morphological types. Host galaxy data from this work will be useful, in conjunction with future high-redshift samples, in constraining cosmological parameters., Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal

We present 150 MHz, 1.4 GHz, and 3 GHz radio imaging (LoTSS, FIRST and VLASS) and spatially resolved ionized gas characteristics (SDSS IV-MaNGA) for 140 local ($z, 23 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Precise cosmic web classification of observed galaxies in massive spectroscopic surveys can be either highly uncertain or computationally expensive. As an alternative, we explore a fast Machine Learning-based approach to infer the underlying dark matter tidal cosmic web environment of a galaxy distribution from its $\beta$-skeleton graph. We develop and test our methodology using the cosmological magnetohydrodynamic simulation Illustris-TNG at $z=0$. We explore three different tree-based machine-learning algorithms to find that a random forest classifier can best use graph-based features to classify a galaxy as belonging to a peak, filament or sheet as defined by the T-Web classification algorithm. The best match between the galaxies and the dark matter T-Web corresponds to a density field smoothed over scales of $2$ Mpc, a threshold over the eigenvalues of the dimensionless tidal tensor of $\lambda_{\rm{th}}=0.0$ and galaxy number densities around $8\times 10^{-3}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. This methodology results on a weighted F1 score of 0.728 and a global accuracy of 74\%. More extensive tests that take into account lightcone effects and redshift space distortions (RSD) are left for future work. We make one of our highest ranking random forest models available on a public repository for future reference and reuse., Comment: ApJ accepted, 13 pages, 9 figures

We present a catalog of physical properties for galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). By fitting broadband spectral energy distributions of sources in the WISE AGN Catalog (Assef et al. 2018) with empirical galaxy and AGN templates, we derive photometric redshifts, AGN bolometric luminosities, measures of AGN obscuration, host galaxy stellar masses, and host galaxy star formation rates (SFRs) for 695,273 WISE AGN. The wide-area nature of this catalog significantly augments the known number of obscured AGN out to redshifts of z~3 and will be useful for studies focused on AGN or their host galaxy physical properties. We first show that the most likely non-AGN contaminants are galaxies at redshifts of z=0.2-0.3, with relatively blue W1-W2 colors, and with high specific SFRs for which the dust continuum emission is elevated in the W2 filter. Toward increasingly lower redshifts, WISE AGN host galaxies have systematically lower specific SFRs, relative to those of normal star forming galaxies, likely due to decreased cold gas fractions and the time delay between global star formation and AGN triggering. Finally, WISE AGN obscuration is not strongly correlated with AGN bolometric luminosity but shows a significant negative correlation with Eddington ratio. This result is consistent with a version of the `receding torus' model in which the obscuring material is located within the supermassive black hole gravitational sphere of influence and the dust inner radius increases due to radiation pressure., 21 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The full catalog is available from the publisher or from the corresponding author upon request

The Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect introduces a specific distortion of the blackbody spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation when it scatters off hot gas in clusters of galaxies. The frequency dependence of the distortion is only independent of the cluster redshift when the evolution of the CMB radiation is adiabatic. Using 370 clusters within the redshift range 0.07 ≲ z ≲ 1.4 from the largest SZ-selected cluster sample to date from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, we provide new constraints on the deviation of CMB temperature evolution from the standard model α = 0.017 − 0.032 + 0.029 , where T ( z ) = T 0 1 + z 1 − α . This result is consistent with no deviation from the standard adiabatic model. Combining it with previous, independent data sets we obtain a joint constraint of α = −0.001 ± 0.012. Attributing deviation from adiabaticity to the decay of dark energy, this result constrains its effective equation of state w eff = − 0.998 − 0.010 + 0.008 .

We study halo mass functions with high-resolution $N$-body simulations under a $��$CDM cosmology. Our simulations adopt the cosmological model that is consistent with recent measurements of the cosmic microwave backgrounds with the ${\it Planck}$ satellite. We calibrate the halo mass functions for $10^{8.5} \lower.5ex\hbox{$\; \buildrel < \over \sim \;$} M_\mathrm{vir} / (h^{-1}M_\odot) \lower.5ex\hbox{$\; \buildrel < \over \sim \;$} 10^{15.0 - 0.45 \, z}$, where $M_\mathrm{vir}$ is the virial spherical overdensity mass and redshift $z$ ranges from $0$ to $7$. The halo mass function in our simulations can be fitted by a four-parameter model over a wide range of halo masses and redshifts, while we require some redshift evolution of the fitting parameters. Our new fitting formula of the mass function has a 5\%-level precision except for the highest masses at $z\le 7$. Our model predicts that the analytic prediction in Sheth $\&$ Tormen would overestimate the halo abundance at $z=6$ with $M_\mathrm{vir} = 10^{8.5-10}\, h^{-1}M_\odot$ by $20-30\%$. Our calibrated halo mass function provides a baseline model to constrain warm dark matter (WDM) by high-$z$ galaxy number counts. We compare a cumulative luminosity function of galaxies at $z=6$ with the total halo abundance based on our model and a recently proposed WDM correction. We find that WDM with its mass lighter than $2.71\, \mathrm{keV}$ is incompatible with the observed galaxy number density at a $2��$ confidence level., 19 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ

A numerical detection of the mass-dependent spin transition of the galaxies is presented. Analyzing a sample of the galaxies with stellar masses in the range of $10^{9}< (M_{\star}/M_{\odot})\le 10^{11}$ from the IllustrisTNG300-1 simulations, we explore the alignment tendency between the galaxy baryon spins and the three eigenvectors of the linearly reconstructed tidal field as a function of $M_{\star}$ and its evolution in the redshift range of $0\le z \le 1.5$. Detecting a significant signal of the occurrence of the mass-dependent transition of the galaxy spins, we show that the centrals differ from the satellites in their spin transition type. As $M_{\star}$ increases beyond a certain threshold mass, the preferred directions of the central galaxy spins transit from the minor to the intermediate tidal eigenvectors (type two) at $z=0.5$ and $1$, while those of the satellites transit from the minor to the major tidal eigenvectors (type one) at $z=1$ and $1.5$. It is also shown that the mass range and type of the spin transition depend on the galaxy morphology, degree of the alignments between the baryon and total spin vectors as well as on the environmental density. Meanwhile, the stellar spins of the galaxies are found to yield a weak signal of the T1 transitions at $z=0$, whose strength and trend depend on the degree of the alignments between the stellar and baryon spins. The possible mechanisms responsible for the T1 and T2 spin transitions are discussed., Accepted for publication in ApJ, 16 figures, 5 tables, improved analysis, focus switched to the baryon spins

We study the gravitational lensing properties of a massive object in a dark matter halo, concentrating on the critical curves and caustics of the combined lens. We model the system in the simplest approximation by a point mass embedded in a spherical Navarro$-$Frenk$-$White density profile. The low number of parameters of such a model permits a systematic exploration of its parameter space. We present galleries of critical curves and caustics for different masses and positions of the point in the halo. We demonstrate the existence of a critical mass, above which the gravitational influence of the centrally positioned point is strong enough to eliminate the radial critical curve and caustic of the halo. In the point-mass parameter space we identify the boundaries at which critical-curve transitions and corresponding caustic metamorphoses occur. The number of transitions as a function of position of the point is surprisingly high, ranging from three for higher masses to as many as eight for lower masses. On the caustics we identify the occurrence of six different types of caustic metamorphoses. We illustrate the peculiar properties of the single radial critical curve and caustic appearing in an additional unusual non-local metamorphosis for a critical mass positioned at the halo center. Although we constructed the model primarily to study the lensing influence of individual galaxies in a galaxy cluster, it can also be used to study the lensing by dwarf satellite galaxies in the halo of a host galaxy, as well as (super)massive black holes at a general position in a galactic halo., Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, accepted to ApJ

Advances in cosmic microwave background (CMB) science depend on increasing the number of sensitive detectors observing the sky. New instruments deploy large arrays of superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers tiled densely into ever larger focal planes. High multiplexing factors reduce the thermal loading on the cryogenic receivers and simplify their design. We present the design of focal-plane modules with an order of magnitude higher multiplexing factor than has previously been achieved with TES bolometers. We focus on the novel cold readout component, which employs microwave SQUID multiplexing ($��$mux). Simons Observatory will use 49 modules containing 60,000 bolometers to make exquisitely sensitive measurements of the CMB. We validate the focal-plane module design, presenting measurements of the readout component with and without a prototype detector array of 1728 polarization-sensitive bolometers coupled to feedhorns. The readout component achieves a $95\%$ yield and a 910 multiplexing factor. The median white noise of each readout channel is 65 $\mathrm{pA/\sqrt{Hz}}$. This impacts the projected SO mapping speed by $< 8\%$, which is less than is assumed in the sensitivity projections. The results validate the full functionality of the module. We discuss the measured performance in the context of SO science requirements, which are exceeded., Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal

We examine the impact of baryonic physics on the halo distribution in hydrodynamic simulations (Illustris, IllustrisTNG, and EAGLE), particularly with regards to how it differs from that in dark matter only (DMO) simulations. We find that, in general, DMO simulations produce halo mass functions (HMF) that are shifted to higher halo masses than their hydrodynamic counterparts, due to the lack of baryonic physics. However, the exact nature of this mass shift is a complex function of mass, halo definition, redshift, and larger-scale environment, and it also depends on the specifics of the baryonic physics implemented in the simulation. We present fitting formulae for the corrections one would need to apply to each DMO halo catalogue in order to reproduce the HMF found in its hydrodynamic counterpart. We provide these formulae for all three simulations, for five different halo definitions at redshifts 0, 1, and 2. Additionally, we explore the dependence on environment of this HMF discrepancy, and find that, in most cases, halos in low density environments are slightly more impacted by baryonic physics than halos in high density environments. We thus also provide environment-dependent mass correction formulae that can reproduce the conditional, as well as global, HMF. We show that our mass corrections also repair the large-scale clustering of halos, though the environment-dependent corrections are required to achieve an accuracy better than 2%. Finally, we examine the impact of baryonic physics on the halo mass - concentration relation, and find that its slope in hydrodynamic simulations is consistent with that in DMO simulations. Ultimately, we recommend that any future work relying on DMO halo catalogues incorporate our mass corrections to test the robustness of their results to baryonic effects., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted to ApJ

Polytropes have gained renewed interest because they account for several seemingly-disconnected observational properties of galaxies. Here we study if polytropes are also able to explain the stellar mass distribution within galaxies. We develop a code to fit surface density profiles using polytropes projected in the plane of the sky (propols). Sersic profiles are known to be good proxies for the global shapes of galaxies and we find that, ignoring central cores, propols and Sersic profiles are indistinguishable within observational errors (within 5 % over 5 orders of magnitude in surface density). The range of physically meaningful polytropes yields Sersic indexes between 0.4 and 6. The code has been systematically applied to ~750 galaxies with carefully measured mass density profiles and including all morphological types and stellar masses (7 < log (Mstar/Msun) < 12). The propol fits are systematically better than Sersic profiles when log(Mstar/Msun) < 9 and systematically worst when log(Mstar/Msun) > 10. Although with large scatter, the observed polytropic indexes increase with increasing mass and tend to cluster around m=5. For the most massive galaxies, propols are very good at reproducing their central parts, but they do not handle well cores and outskirts altogether. Polytropes are self-gravitating systems in thermal meta-equilibrium as defined by the Tsallis entropy. Thus, the above results are compatible with the principle of maximum Tsallis entropy dictating the internal structure in dwarf galaxies and in the central region of massive galaxies., Accepted for publication in ApJ. The fitting code is publicly available at https://github.com/jorgesanchezalmeida/polytropic-fits

We analyze the effect of polarized diffuse emission in the calibration of wide-beam mm-wave polarimeters, when using the Crab Nebula as a reference source for both polarized brightness and polarization angle. We show that, for CMB polarization experiments aiming at detecting B-mode in a scenario with a tensor to scalar ratio $r \sim 0.001$, wide (a few degrees in diameter), precise ($\sigma_Q$ , $\sigma_U$ $\sim$ 20 $\mu$$K_{CMB}$ arcmin), high angular resolution ($< \mathrm{FWHM}$) reference maps are needed to properly take into account the effects of diffuse polarized emission and avoid significant bias in the calibration.

Accurate 7Li(d,n)24He thermonuclear reaction rates are crucial for precise prediction of the primordial abundances of Lithium and Beryllium and to probe the mysteries beyond fundamental physics and the standard cosmological model. However, uncertainties still exist in current reaction rates of 7Li(d,n)24He widely used in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) simulations. In this work, we reevaluate the 7Li(d,n)24He reaction rate using the latest data on the three near-threshold 9Be excited states from experimental measurements. We present for the first time uncertainties that are directly constrained by experiments. Additionally, we take into account for the first time the contribution from the subthreshold resonance at 16.671 MeV of 9Be. We obtain a 7Li(d,n)24He rate that is overall smaller than the previous estimation by about a factor of 60 at the typical temperature of the onset of primordial nucleosynthesis. We implemented our new rate in BBN nucleosynthesis calculations, and we show that the new rates have a very limited impact on the final light element abundances in uniform density models. Typical abundance variations are in the order of 0.002%. For nonuniform density BBN models, the predicted 7Li production can be increased by 10% and the primordial production of light nuclides with mass number A>7 can be increased by about 40%. Our results confirm that the cosmological lithium problem remains a long-standing unresolved puzzle from the standpoint of nuclear physics.

To further shed light on whether pre-recombination models can resolve the Hubble tension, we explore constraints on the cosmic background evolution that are insensitive to early-universe physics. The analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy has been thought to highly rely on early-universe physics. However, we show that the fact that the sound horizon at recombination being close to that at the end of the drag epoch is insensitive to early-universe physics. This allows us to link the absolute sizes of the two horizons and treat them as free parameters. Jointly, the CMB peak angular size, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and Type Ia supernovae can be used as "early-universe-physics insensitive and uncalibrated cosmic standards", which measure the cosmic history from recombination to today. They can set strong and robust constraints on the post-recombination cosmic background, especially the matter density parameter with $\Omega_{\rm{m}}=0.302\pm0.008$ ($68\%$ C.L.) assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM after recombination. When we combine these with other non-local observations, we obtain several constraints on $H_0$ with significantly reduced sensitivity to early-universe physics. These are all more consistent with the Planck 2018 result than the local measurement results such as those based on Cepheids. This suggests a tension between the post-recombination, but non-local, observations and the local measurements which cannot be resolved by modifying pre-recombination early universe physics., Comment: Results updated with stellar-age constraints; conclusion unchanged. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We forecast constraints on cosmological parameters in the interacting dark energy models using the mock data generated for neutral hydrogen intensity mapping (IM) experiments. In this work, we only consider the interacting dark energy models with energy transfer rate $Q=\beta H\rho_{\rm c}$, and take BINGO, FAST, SKA1-MID, and Tianlai as typical examples of the 21 cm IM experiments. We find that the Tianlai cylinder array will play an important role in constraining the interacting dark energy model. Assuming perfect foreground removal and calibration, and using the Tianlai-alone data, we obtain $\sigma(H_0)=0.19$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, $\sigma(\Omega_{\rm m})=0.0033$ and $\sigma(\sigma_8)=0.0033$ in the I$\Lambda$CDM model, which are much better than the results of Planck+optical BAO (i.e. optical galaxy surveys). However, the Tianlai-alone data cannot provide a very tight constraint on the coupling parameter $\beta$ compared with Planck+optical BAO, while the Planck+Tianlai data can give a rather tight constraint of $\sigma(\beta)=0.00023$ due to the parameter degeneracies being well broken by the data combination. In the I$w$CDM model, we obtain $\sigma(\beta)=0.00079$ and $\sigma(w)=0.013$ from Planck+Tianlai. In addition, we also make a detailed comparison among BINGO, FAST, SKA1-MID, and Tianlai in constraining the interacting dark energy models. We show that future 21 cm IM experiments will provide a useful tool for exploring the nature of dark energy and play a significant role in measuring the coupling between dark energy and dark matter., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

For the first time, we present the simultaneous detection and characterization of three distinct phases at $>10^5$ K in $z=0$ absorption, using deep $\it{Chandra}$ observations toward Mrk 421. The extraordinarily high signal-to-noise ratio ($\geqslant60$) of the spectra has allowed us to detect a $\it{hot}$ phase of the Milky Way circumgalactic medium (CGM) at 3.2$^{+1.5}_{-0.5}\times$ 10$^7$ K, coexisting with a $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase at 1.5$\pm$0.1$\times$10$^6$ K and a $\textit{warm}$ phase at 3.0$\pm$0.4$\times$10$^5$ K. The $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase is at the virial temperature of the Galaxy, and the $\textit{warm}$ phase may have cooled from the $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase, but the super-virial $\textit{hot}$ phase remains a mystery. We find that [C/O] in the $\textit{warm}$ and $\textit{warm-hot}$ phases, [Mg/O] in the $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase and [Ne/O] in the $\textit{hot}$ phase are super-solar, and the $\textit{hot}$ and the $\textit{warm-hot}$ phases are $��-$enhanced. Non-thermal line broadening is evident in the $\textit{warm-hot}$ and the $\textit{hot}$ phases and it dominates the total line broadening. Our results indicate that the $>10^5$ K CGM is a complex ecosystem. It provides insights on the thermal and chemical history of the Milky Way CGM, and theories of galaxy evolution., 18 pages, 2 tables, 5 figures, 2 appendices (with 1 figure), accepted for publication in ApJ (main)

PKS\,1351$-$018 at a redshift of $z=3.71$ is one of the most luminous, steady synchrotron sources with a luminosity $> 10^{47}$\,erg~s$^{-1}$. The synchrotron luminosity does not seem to vary by more than $\sim 25\%$ over 35 years. In order to appreciate this remarkable behavior, if it were at $z=0.5$, it would have a flux density at 15 GHz in a range of $110 - 137$\,Jy over 11 yrs. In spite of this steady behavior, two strong $\gamma$-ray flares $\lesssim 10^{49}$\,erg~s$^{-1}$ were detected in 2011 and 2016. There is blazar-like behavior coexisting with the steady behavior. This study is aimed at elucidating the dual nature of this source. We find that the radio source is extremely compact with a bright core and a steep spectrum secondary component, 12\,mas away, that appears to be constant in position and flux density in six epochs from 1995 to 2018. We estimate that a jet with a time averaged power of $(5.2 \pm 3.2) \times 10^{45}$\,erg~s$^{-1}$ terminates in this lobe that is advancing $\gtrsim 0.9 c$ at a deprojected distance of $1-3$\,kpc from the central engine. This is the rare case of a young ($\sim 6000$\,yr), very powerful radio source that is viewed a few degrees from the jet axis. We find evidence of a high velocity (4000\,km~s$^{-1}$), high ionization wind emanating form a luminous quasar. The young radio jet appears to experience modest bending as it navigates through the intense quasar environment., Comment: To appear in ApJ

Gravitationally lensed curved arcs provide a wealth of information about the underlying lensing distortions. Extracting precise lensing information from extended sources is a key component in many studies aiming to answer fundamental questions about the Universe. To maintain accuracy with increased precision, it is of vital importance to characterize and understand the impact of degeneracies inherent in lensing observables. In this work, we present a formalism to describe the gravitational lensing distortion effects resulting in curved extended arcs based on the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the local lensing Jacobian and their directional differentials. We identify a non-local and non-linear extended deflector basis that inherits these local properties. Our parameterization is tightly linked to observable features in extended sources and allows one to accurately extract the lensing information of extended images without imposing an explicit global deflector model. We quantify what degeneracies can be broken based on specific assumptions on the local lensing nature and assumed intrinsic source shape. Our formalism is applicable from the weak linear regime, the semi-linear regime all the way up to the highly non-linear regime of highly magnified arcs of multiple images. The methodology and implementation presented in this work provides a framework to assessing systematics, to guide inference efforts in the right choices in complexity based on the data at hand, and to quantify the lensing information extracted in a model-independent way., Comment: 25 pages, 11 Figures, code repository: https://github.com/sibirrer/curved_arcs accepted for publishing in AAS journal

The successive discoveries of binary merger events by Advanced LIGO-Virgo have been revealing the statistical properties of binary black hole (BBH) populations. A stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) is a useful tool to probe the cosmological evolution of those compact mergers. In this paper, we study the upper bound on a GWB produced by BBH mergers, whose stellar progenitors dominate the reionization process at the cosmic dawn. Since early reionization by those progenitors yields a high optical depth of the universe inconsistent with the {\it Planck} measurements, the cumulative mass density is limited to $\rho_\star \lesssim 10^7~M_\odot~{\rm Mpc}^{-3}$. Even with this upper bound, the amplitude of a GWB owing to the high-$z$ BBH mergers is expected to be as high as $\Omega_{\rm gw}\simeq 1.48_{-1.27}^{+1.80}\times 10^{-9}$ at $f\simeq 25$ Hz, while their merger rate at the present-day is consistent or lower than the observed GW event rate. This level of GWB is detectable at the design sensitivity of Advanced LIGO-Virgo and would indicate a major contribution of the high-$z$ BBH population to the local GW events. The spectral index is expected to be substantially flatter than the canonical value of $\simeq 2/3$ generically produced by lower-redshift and less massive BBHs. Moreover, if their mass function is more top-heavy than in the local universe, the GWB spectrum is even more skewed toward lower frequencies, which would allow us to extract information on the mass function of merging BBHs at high redshifts., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We present an improved method for calculating the parallel and perpendicular velocity correlation functions directly from peculiar velocity surveys using weighted maximum-likelihood estimators. A central feature of the new method is the use of position-dependent weighting scheme that reduces the influence of nearby galaxies, which are typically overrepresented relative to the more distant galaxies in most surveys. We demonstrate that the correlation functions calculated this way are less susceptible to biases due to our particular location in the Universe, and thus are more easily comparable to linear theory and between surveys. Our results suggest that the parallel velocity correlation function is a promising cosmological probe, given that it provides a better approximation of a Gaussian distribution than other velocity correlation functions and that its bias is more easily minimized by weighting. Though the position weighted parallel velocity correlation function increases the statistical uncertainty, it decreases the cosmic variance and is expected to provide more stable and tighter cosmological parameter constraints than other correlation methods in conjunction with more precise velocity surveys in the future., 15 pages, 13 figures

Soon, the combination of electromagnetic and gravitational signals will open the door to a new era of gravitational-wave (GW) cosmology. It will allow us to test the propagation of tensor perturbations across cosmic time and study the distribution of their sources over large scales. In this work, we show how machine learning techniques can be used to reconstruct new physics by leveraging the spatial correlation between GW mergers and galaxies. We explore the possibility of jointly reconstructing the modified GW propagation law and the linear bias of GW sources, as well as breaking the slight degeneracy between them by combining multiple techniques. We show predictions roughly based on a network of Einstein Telescopes combined with a high-redshift galaxy survey ($z\lesssim3$). Moreover, we investigate how these results can be re-scaled to other instrumental configurations. In the long run, we find that obtaining accurate and precise luminosity distance measurements (extracted directly from the individual GW signals) will be the most important factor to consider when maximizing constraining power., 12 pages, 5 figures, code available at https://github.com/valerivardanyan/GW-Cosmo

Upcoming 21cm surveys will map the spatial distribution of cosmic neutral hydrogen (HI) over very large cosmological volumes. In order to maximize the scientific return of these surveys, accurate theoretical predictions are needed. Hydrodynamic simulations currently are the most accurate tool to provide those predictions in the mildly to non-linear regime. Unfortunately, their computational cost is very high: tens of millions of CPU hours. We use convolutional neural networks to find the mapping between the spatial distribution of matter from N-body simulations and HI from the state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulation IllustrisTNG. Our model performs better than the widely used theoretical model: Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) for all statistical properties up to the non-linear scales $k\lesssim1$ h/Mpc. Our method allows the generation of 21cm mocks over very big cosmological volumes with similar properties as hydrodynamic simulations., Comment: 10+5 pages, 7+3 figures. Added supplementary figures and sections to the Appendix for clarification, conclusions unchanged. Version appearing in ApJ

Line intensity mapping (LIM) provides a unique and powerful means to probe cosmic structures by measuring the aggregate line emission from all galaxies across redshift. The method is complementary to conventional galaxy redshift surveys that are object-based and demand exquisite point-source sensitivity. The Tomographic Ionized-carbon Mapping Experiment (TIME) will measure the star formation rate (SFR) during cosmic reionization by observing the redshifted [CII] 158$\mu$m line ($6 \lesssim z \lesssim 9$) in the LIM regime. TIME will simultaneously study the abundance of molecular gas during the era of peak star formation by observing the rotational CO lines emitted by galaxies at $0.5 \lesssim z \lesssim 2$. We present the modeling framework that predicts the constraining power of TIME on a number of observables, including the line luminosity function, and the auto- and cross-correlation power spectra, including synergies with external galaxy tracers. Based on an optimized survey strategy and fiducial model parameters informed by existing observations, we forecast constraints on physical quantities relevant to reionization and galaxy evolution, such as the escape fraction of ionizing photons during reionization, the faint-end slope of the galaxy luminosity function at high redshift, and the cosmic molecular gas density at cosmic noon. We discuss how these constraints can advance our understanding of cosmological galaxy evolution at the two distinct cosmic epochs for TIME, starting in 2021, and how they could be improved in future phases of the experiment., Comment: 30 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present spectroscopic confirmation of two new massive galaxy protoclusters at $z=2.24\pm0.02$, BOSS1244 and BOSS1542, traced by groups of Coherently Strong Ly$\alpha$ Absorption (CoSLA) systems imprinted in the absorption spectra of a number of quasars from the SDSS III and identified as overdensities of narrowband-selected H$\alpha$ emitters (HAEs). Using MMT/MMIRS and LBT/LUCI near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, we confirm 46 and 36 HAEs in the BOSS1244 and BOSS1542 fields, respectively. BOSS1244 displays a South-West (SW) component at $z=2.230\pm0.002$ and another North-East (NE) component at $z=2.246\pm0.001$ with the line-of-sight velocity dispersions of $405\pm202$ km s$^{-1}$ and $377\pm99$ km s$^{-1}$, respectively. Interestingly, we find that the SW region of BOSS1244 contains two substructures in redshift space, likely merging to form a larger system. In contrast, BOSS1542 exhibits an extended filamentary structure with a low velocity dispersion of $247\pm32$ km s$^{-1}$ at $z=2.241\pm0.001$, providing a direct confirmation of a large-scale cosmic web in the early Universe. The galaxy overdensities $\delta_{\rm g}$ on the scale of 15 cMpc are $22.9\pm4.9$, $10.9\pm2.5$, and $20.5\pm3.9$ for the BOSS1244 SW, BOSS1244 NE, and BOSS1542 filament, respectively. They are the most overdense galaxy protoclusters ($\delta_{\rm g}>20$) discovered to date at $z>2$. These systems are expected to become virialized at $z\sim0$ with a total mass of $M_{\rm SW}=(1.59\pm0.20)\times10^{15}$ $M_{\odot}$, $M_{\rm NE} =(0.83\pm0.11)\times10^{15}$ $M_{\odot}$ and $M_{\rm filament}=(1.42\pm0.18)\times10^{15}$ $M_{\odot}$, respectively. Together with BOSS1441 described in Cai et al. (2017a), these extremely massive overdensities at $z=2-3$ exhibit different morphologies, indicating that they are in different assembly stages in the formation of early galaxy clusters., Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ. The complete Abstract is presented in the manuscript

The public GALPROP code gives a fully numerical solution for the spectrum of cosmic rays propagating through a linear Galactic wind directed outwards from the Galactic plane in the framework of a cylindrical diffusion model. Alternatively, for the linear Galactic wind case, we present a semi-analytical solution of the two-zone cylindrical model which describes the spectrum of cosmic-ray antiprotons produced from the primary sources throughout the dark matter halo. While the secondary antiprotons can be generated by, e.g., the GALPROP WebRun, consistently using this semi-analytical solution for the primary ones would be helpful to build a suited dark matter (DM) model, which may be sophisticated, and then to perform a statistical analysis when confronting with data. As an example, using the obtained formula, we study the possible DM signal, through the channel $\text{DM DM} \to {\bar b}b$, and its constraint from the measurement of the AMS-02 antiproton-to-proton ratio. The indication of the DM signal is discussed. The advantage of the semi-analytical approach and its comparison with the GALPROP model are presented., 18 pages, 1 Table, 7 Figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We use the Cosmic Assembly Deep Near-infrared Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) data to study the relationship between quenching and the stellar mass surface density within the central radius of 1 kpc ($\Sigma_1$) of low-mass galaxies (stellar mass $M_* \lesssim 10^{9.5} M_\odot$) at $0.5 \leq z < 1.5$. Our sample is mass complete down to $\sim 10^9 M_\odot$ at $0.5 \leq z < 1.0$. We compare the mean $\Sigma_1$ of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and quenched galaxies (QGs) at the same redshift and $M_*$. We find that low-mass QGs have higher $\Sigma_1$ than low-mass SFGs, similar to galaxies above $10^{10} M_\odot$. The difference of $\Sigma_1$ between QGs and SFGs increases slightly with $M_*$ at $M_* \lesssim 10^{10} M_\odot$ and decreases with $M_*$ at $M_* \gtrsim 10^{10} M_\odot$. The turnover mass is consistent with the mass where quenching mechanisms transition from internal to environmental quenching. At $0.5 \leq z < 1.0$, we find that the $\Sigma_1$ of galaxies increases by about 0.25 dex in the green valley (i.e., the transitioning region from star forming to fully quenched), regardless of their $M_*$. Using the observed specific star formation rate (sSFR) gradient in the literature as a constraint, we estimate that the quenching timescale (i.e., time spent in the transition) of low-mass galaxies is a few ($\sim4$) Gyrs at $0.5 \leq z < 1.0$. The mechanisms responsible for quenching need to gradually quench star formation in an outside-in way, i.e., preferentially ceasing star formation in outskirts of galaxies while maintaining their central star formation to increase $\Sigma_1$. An interesting and intriguing result is the similarity of the growth of $\Sigma_1$ in the green valley between low-mass and massive galaxies, which suggests that the role of internal processes in quenching low-mass galaxies is a question worthy of further investigation., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. Accepted by ApJ

The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) is an impressive tool for finding near-exhaustive information on millions of astrophysical objects. Here, we outline a small systematic error that occurs in NED because a low-redshift approximation is used when making the correction from redshifts in the heliocentric frame to the cosmic microwave background (CMB) rest frame. It means that historically NED systematically misreported the values of CMB-frame redshifts by up to $\sim10^{-3}z$ (about 0.001 at redshift of 1). This is a systematic error, and therefore the impact on applications requiring precise redshifts has the potential to be significant -- for example, a systematic redshift error of $\sim10^{-4}$ at low redshift could resolve the Hubble tension. We have consulted with the NED team and they are updating the software to remove this systematic error so these corrections are accurate at all redshifts. Here, we explain the changes and how they impact the redshift values NED currently reports., 7 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Corrected the first term of equation (8)

Next generation large scale surveys probe the nonlinear regime with high resolution. Making viable cosmological inferences based on these observations requires accurate theoretical modeling of the mildly nonlinear regime. In this work we investigate the sensitivity of cosmological parameter measurements from future probes of galaxy clustering to the choice of nonlinear prescription up to $k_{\rm max}=0.3~h~\rm{Mpc}^{-1}$. In particular, we calculate the induced parameter bias when the mildly nonlinear regime is modeled by the Halofit fitting scheme. We find significant ($\sim5\sigma$) bias for some parameters with a future Euclid-like survey. We also explore the contribution of different scales to the parameter estimation for different observational setups and cosmological scenarios, compared for the two nonlinear prescriptions of Halofit and EFTofLSS. We include in the analysis the free parameters of the nonlinear theory and a blind parametrization for the galaxy bias. We find that marginalization over these nuisance parameters significantly boosts the errors of the standard cosmological parameters. This renders the differences in the predictions of the various nonlinear prescriptions less effective when transferred to the parameter space. More accurate modeling of these nuisance parameters would therefore greatly enhance the cosmological gain from the mildly nonlinear regime.

We present the analytical framework for converting projected light distributions with a S\'ersic profile into three-dimensional light distributions for stellar systems of arbitrary triaxial shape. The main practical result is the definition of a simple yet robust measure of intrinsic galaxy size: the median radius $r_\mathrm{med}$, defined as the radius of a sphere that contains 50% of the total luminosity or mass, that is, the median distance of a star to the galaxy center. We examine how $r_\mathrm{med}$ depends on projected size measurements as a function of S\'ersic index and intrinsic axis ratios, and demonstrate its relative independence of these parameters. As an application we show that the projected semi-major axis length of the ellipse enclosing 50% of the light is an unbiased proxy for $r_\mathrm{med}$, with small galaxy-to-galaxy scatter of $\sim$10% (1$\sigma$), under the condition that the variation in triaxiality within the population is small. For galaxy populations with unknown or a large range in triaxiality an unbiased proxy for $r_\mathrm{med}$ is $1.3\times R_{e}$, where $R_{e}$ is the circularized half-light radius, with galaxy-to-galaxy scatter of 20-30% (1$\sigma$). We also describe how inclinations can be estimated for individual galaxies based on the measured projected shape and prior knowledge of the intrinsic shape distribution of the corresponding galaxy population. We make the numerical implementation of our calculations available., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ

We matched the 1.4 GHz local luminosity functions of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and active galactic nuclei to the 1.4 GHz differential source counts from $0.25 \ \mu\mathrm{Jy}$ to 25 Jy using combinations of luminosity and density evolution. We present the most robust and complete local far-infrared (FIR)/radio luminosity correlation to date in a volume-limited sample of $\approx 4.3 \times 10^3$ nearby SFGs, finding that it is very tight but distinctly sub-linear: $L_\mathrm{FIR} \propto L_\mathrm{1.4\,GHz}^{0.85}$. If the local FIR/radio correlation does not evolve, the evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function of SFGs yields the evolving star-formation rate density (SFRD) $\psi (M_\odot \ \mathrm{year}^{-1} \ \mathrm{Mpc}^{-3}$) as a function of time since the big bang. The SFRD measured at 1.4 GHz grows rapidly at early times, peaks at "cosmic noon" when $t \approx 3 \ \mathrm{Gyr}$ and $z \approx 2$, and subsequently decays with an $e$-folding time scale $\tau = 3.2 \ \mathrm{Gyr}$. This evolution is similar to, but somewhat stronger than, SFRD evolution estimated from UV and FIR data., Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ

The growth of galaxy clusters is energetic and may trigger and/or quench star formation and black hole activity. The ENISALA project is a collection of multiwavelength observations aimed at understanding how large-scale structure drives galaxy and black hole evolution. Here, we introduce optical spectroscopy of over 800 H$\alpha$ emission-line galaxies, selected in 14 z~0.15-0.31 galaxy clusters, spanning a range of masses and dynamical states. We investigate the nature of the emission lines in relation to the host galaxy properties, its location within the cluster, and the properties of the parent cluster. We uncover remarkable differences between mergers and relaxed clusters. The majority of H$\alpha$ emission-line galaxies in merging cluster fields are located within 3 Mpc of their center. A large fraction of these line-emitters in merging clusters are powered by star formation irrespective of cluster-centric radius, while the rest are powered by active galactic nuclei. Star-forming galaxies are rare within 3 Mpc of relaxed clusters and active galactic nuclei are most abundant at their outskirts (~1.5-3 Mpc). We discover a population of star-forming galaxies with large equivalent widths and blue UV-optical colors, found exclusively in the merging clusters in our sample. The widespread emission-line activity in merging clusters is likely supported by triggered activity in recently-accreted, gas-rich galaxies. By contrast, our observations for relaxed clusters match established models, in which black hole activity is enhanced at the virial radius and star-formation is quenched within the infall region. We conclude that emission-line galaxies experience distinct evolutionary paths in merging and relaxed clusters., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 30 pages, 22 figures, 3 tables. Main results can be found in Figures 14, 15, 16, 17 and 19

We present new high-resolution (R~14,000) spectra of the two brightest HeII-transparent quasars in the far-UV (FUV) at z>3.5, HE2QSJ2311-1417 (z=3.70) and HE2QSJ1630+0435 (z=3.81), obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In the predominantly saturated HeII absorption spectra, both sightlines show several isolated resolved (full width at half maximum FWHM>50 km/s) transmission spikes in HeII Ly$\alpha$ and HeII Ly$\beta$. The incidence of such spikes decreases with increasing redshift, but both sightlines show significant spikes at z>3.5, signaling the presence of fully ionized regions in the z>3.5 intergalactic medium (IGM). We employ an automated algorithm to compare the number of detected HeII transmission spikes to predictions from mock spectra created from the outputs of a cubic (100/h cMpc)^3 optically thin Nyx hydrodynamical simulation, assuming a range of UV background photoionization rates $\Gamma_\mathrm{HeII}$. From the incidence of Ly$\alpha$ and Ly$\beta$ transmission spikes we infer similar photoionization rates of $\Gamma_\mathrm{HeII}=2.0^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\times 10^{-15}$s$^{-1}$ at 3.513.5 along both lines of sight, our observations provide further evidence that HeII reionization had substantially progressed at these redshifts., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ following minor revision; 21 pages, 17 figures

In this work we explore the power of future large-scale surveys to constrain possible deviations from the standard single-field slow-roll inflationary scenario. Specifically, we parametrize possible fluctuations around the almost scale-invariant primordial scalar power spectrum in a model independent way. We then use their imprints on the simulated matter distribution, as observed by the galaxy clustering and weak lensing probes of Euclid and Square Kilometer Array, to construct the best constrainable patterns of fluctuations. For comparison, we make similar forecasts for a futuristic CMB-S4-like survey. The modes are found to have similar, yet shifted, patterns, with increasing number of wiggles as the mode number increases. The forecasted constraints are tightest for CMB anisotropies and galaxy clustering, depending on the details of the specifications of the survey. As case studies, we explore how two greatly different physically motivated patterns of primordial power spectrum are reconstructed by the proposed modes. We propose a figure of merit based on the amount of information delivered by the modes to truncate the mode hierarchy which is automatically generated by the analysis., 12 pages, 12 figures

We probe the dusty environment of the archetypical type-1 AGN in NGC 4151 with comprehensive IR reverberation mapping over several decades, in J ($\sim1.22\mu$m), H ($\sim1.63\mu$m), K ($\sim2.19\mu$m), L ($\sim3.45\mu$m) and N-band ($\sim10.6\mu m$), plus multiple measurements at 20--40 $\mu$m. At 1--4$\mu$m, the hot dust reverberation signals come from two distinct dust populations at separate radii ($\sim$0.033 pc and $\sim$0.076 pc), with temperatures of $\sim$1500--2500 K and $\sim$900--1000 K, consistent with the expected properties of sublimating graphite and silicate dust grains. The domination of the torus infrared output by carbon and silicate grains near their sublimation temperatures and radii may account for the general similarity of AGN near-IR spectral energy distributions. The torus inner edge defined by the hottest dust remains at roughly the same radius independent of the AGN optical luminosity over $\sim$25 years. The emission by hot dust warmed directly by the optical/UV AGN output has increased gradually by $\sim$4\%/year, indicating a possibly growing torus. A third dust component at $\sim$700 K does not seem to participate directly in the IR reverberation behavior and its emission may originate deep in the circumnuclear torus. We find a reverberation signal at $\sim10\mu$m with an inferred radius for the warm dust of $\sim$2.2--3.1 pc. The lack of variability at 20--40$\mu$m indicates the far-IR emission comes from even more extended regions. The torus properties revealed by dust reverberation analysis are inconsistent with predictions from pure clumpy torus models. Instead, the longer wavelength emission possibly originates in a flared torus or the polar wind., Comment: 34 pages, 23 figures, 2 tables; ApJ in press

The density and temperature properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) reflect the heating and ionization history during cosmological structure formation, and are primarily probed by the Lyman-alpha forest of neutral hydrogen absorption features in the observed spectra of background sources (Gunn & Peterson 1965). We present the methodology and initial results from the Cholla IGM Photoheating Simulation (CHIPS) suite performed with the Graphics Process Unit-accelerated Cholla code to study the IGM at high, uniform spatial resolution maintained over large volumes. In this first paper, we examine the IGM structure in CHIPS cosmological simulations that include IGM uniform photoheating and photoionization models where hydrogen reionization completes early (Haardt & Madau 2012) or by redshift z~6 (Puchwein et al. 2019). Comparing with observations of the large- and small-scale Lyman-alpha transmitted flux power spectra P(k) at redshifts 2 ~ 0.01 s/km at redshifts 2 ~4.5 the observed flux P(k) amplitude increases at a rate intermediate between the models, and we argue that for models where hydrogen reionization completes late (z~5.5 - 6) resolving this disagreement will require inhomogeneous or 'patchy' reionization. (Abridged), Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication at ApJ

We generalize the stochastic theory of hierarchical clustering presented in paper I by Lapi & Danese (2020) to derive the (conditional) halo progenitor mass function and the related large-scale bias. Specifically, we present a stochastic differential equation that describes fluctuations in the mass growth of progenitor halos of given descendant mass and redshift, as driven by a multiplicative Gaussian white noise involving the power spectrum and the spherical collapse threshold of density perturbations. We demonstrate that, as cosmic time passes, the noise yields an average drift of the progenitors toward larger masses, that quantitatively renders the expectation from the standard extended Press & Schechter (EPS) theory. We solve the Fokker-Planck equation associated to the stochastic dynamics, and obtain as an exact, stationary solution the EPS progenitor mass function. Then we introduce a modification of the stochastic equation in terms of a mass-dependent collapse threshold modulating the noise, and solve analytically the associated Fokker-Planck equation for the progenitor mass function. The latter is found to be in excellent agreement with the outcomes of $N-$body simulations; even more remarkably, this is achieved with the same shape of the collapse threshold used in paper I to reproduce the halo mass function. Finally, we exploit the above results to compute the large-scale halo bias, and find it in pleasing agreement with the $N-$body outcomes. All in all, the present paper illustrates that the stochastic theory of hierarchical clustering introduced in paper I can describe effectively not only halos' abundance, but also their progenitor distribution and their correlation with the large-scale environment across cosmic times., 19 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by ApJ

In this paper, we study the sizes of quasar proximity zones with synthetic quasar absorption spectra obtained by post-processing a Cosmic Reionization On Computers (CROC) simulation. CROC simulations have both relatively large box sizes and high spacial resolution, allowing us to resolve Lyman limit systems, which are crucial for modeling the quasar absorption spectra. We find that before reionization most quasar proximity zone sizes grow steadily for $\sim 10$ Myr, while after reionization they grow rapidly but only for $\sim 0.1$ Myr. We also find a slow growth of $R_{\rm obs}$ with decreasing turn-on redshift. In addition, we find that $\sim 1-2\%$ of old quasars ($30$ Myr old) display extremely small proximity zone sizes ($, Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures, comments welcome!

In the next decade, transient searches from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will increase the sample of known Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from ∼103 to 105. With this reduction of statistical uncertainties on cosmological measurements, new methods are needed to reduce systematic uncertainties. Characterizing the underlying spectroscopic evolution of SN Ia remains a major systematic uncertainty in current cosmological analyses, motivating a new simulation tool for the next era of SN Ia cosmology: Build Your Own Spectral Energy Distribution (byosed). byosed is used within the SNANA framework to simulate light curves by applying spectral variations to model SEDs, enabling flexible testing of possible systematic shifts in SN Ia distance measurements. We test the framework by comparing a nominal Roman SN Ia survey simulation using a baseline SED model to simulations using SEDs perturbed with byosed, and investigating the impact of ignoring specific SED features in the analysis. These features include semiempirical models of two possible, predicted relationships: between SN ejecta velocity and light-curve observables, and a redshift-dependent relationship between SN Hubble residuals and host-galaxy mass. We analyze each byosed simulation using the SALT2 and BEAMS with Bias Corrections framework, and estimate changes in the measured value of the dark-energy equation-of-state parameter, w. We find a difference of Δw = −0.023 for SN velocity and Δw = 0.021 for redshift-evolving host mass when compared to simulations without these features. By using byosed for SN Ia cosmology simulations, future analyses (e.g., the Rubin and Roman SN Ia samples) will have greater flexibility to constrain or reduce such SN Ia modeling uncertainties.

In recent years, the availability of large, complete cluster samples has enabled numerous cosmological parameter inference analyses using cluster number counts. These have provided constraints on the cosmic matter density $\Omega_m$ and the amplitude of matter density fluctuations $\sigma_8$ alternative to those obtained from other standard probes. However, systematics uncertainties, such as the mass calibration bias and selection effects, may still significantly affect these data analyses. Hence, it is timely to explore other proxies of galaxy cluster cosmology that can provide cosmological constraints complementary to those obtained from cluster number counts. Here, we use measurements of the cluster sparsity from weak lensing mass estimates of the LC$^2$-{\it single} and HSC-XXL cluster catalogs to infer constraints on a flat $\Lambda$CDM model. The cluster sparsity has the advantage of being insensitive to selection and mass calibration bias. On the other hand, it primarily constrains a degenerate combination of $\Omega_m$ and $\sigma_8$ (along approximately constant curves of $S_8=\sigma_8\sqrt{\Omega_m/0.3}$), and to less extent the reduced Hubble parameter $h$. Hence, in order to break the internal parameter degeneracies we perform a combined likelihood analysis of cluster sparsities with cluster gas mass fraction measurements and BAO data. We find marginal constraints that are competitive with those from other standard cosmic probes: $\Omega_m=0.316\pm 0.013$, $\sigma_8=0.757\pm 0.067$ (corresponding to $S_8=0.776\pm 0.064$) and $h=0.696\pm 0.017$ at $1\sigma$. Moreover, assuming a conservative Gaussian prior on the mass bias of gas mass fraction data, we find a lower limit on the gas depletion factor $Y_{b,500c}\gtrsim 0.89$., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures. ApJ in press. The numerical code for the computation of the average halo sparsity is available at https://github.com/pierste75/Halo_Sparsity

The dark matter halos that surround Milky Way-like galaxies in cosmological simulations are, to first order, triaxial. Nearly 30 years ago it was predicted that such triaxial dark matter halos should exhibit steady figure rotation or tumbling motions for durations of several gigayears. The angular frequency of figure rotation predicted by cosmological simulations is described by a log-normal distribution of pattern speed with a median value 0.15hkm/s/kpc (~ 0.15h rad/Gyr ~ 9h deg/Gyr) and a width of 0.83km/s/kpc. These pattern speeds are so small that they have generally been considered both unimportant and undetectable. In this work we show that even this extremely slow figure rotation can significantly alter the structure of extended stellar streams produced by the tidal disruption of satellites in the Milky Way halo. We simulate the behavior of a Sagittarius-like polar tidal stream in triaxial dark matter halos with different shapes, when the halos are rotated about the three principal axes. For pattern speeds typical of cosmological halos we demonstrate, for the first time, that a Sagittarius-like tidal stream would be altered to a degree that is detectable even with current observations. This discovery will potentially allow for a future measurement of figure rotation of the Milky Way's dark halo, and perhaps enabling the first evidence of this relatively unexplored prediction of LambdaCDM., 23 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Revised version includes a new subsection on the generalized effects of figure rotation about any of the 3 principle axes of triaxial potential on both long and short axis tubes

Source galaxy images are distorted not only by a static gravitational potential, but also by frame-dragging induced by massive rotating objects like clusters of galaxies. Such effect is well understood theoretically, it is therefore of great interest to estimate its detectability for future surveys. In this work, we analyze the lensing convergence $\kappa$ around rotating dark matter halos. The rotation of the massive objects generates a gravitomagnetic potential giving rise to an anisotropic contribution to the lensing potential. We construct an estimator $\delta \kappa$ to describe the difference between the symmetric enhancement and reduction of $\kappa$ around the halo rotation axis, finding that it is well approximated by a function proportional to the halo velocity dispersion squared times a dimensionless angular momentum parameter. Using simulation mocks with realistic noise level for a survey like LSST, we test our estimator, and show that the signal from frame-dragging of stacked rotating lenses is consistent with zero within $1\sigma$. However, we find that the most massive cluster in SDSS DR7 spectroscopic selected group catalog has a line-of-sight rotation velocity of 195.0km/s and velocity dispersion of 667.8km/s, which is at $1.2\times 10^{-8}$ odds according to the angular momentum probability distribution inferred from N-body simulations. By studying SDSS DR7 spectroscopic selected group catalog, we show how rotating clusters can be identified, and, finding that fast rotating clusters might be more abundant than in estimates based on simulations, a detection of gravitomagnetic distortion may be at reach in future surveys, Comment: This article has been accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

In image processing, source detections are inevitably affected by the presence of the geometric boundaries in the images, including the physical boundaries of the CCD, and the boundaries of masked regions due to column defects, bright diffraction spikes, etc. These boundary conditions make the source detection process not statistically isotropic and can lead to additive shear bias near the boundaries. We build a phenomenological model to understand the bias, and propose a simple method to effectively eliminate the influence of geometric boundaries on shear measurement. We demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of this method using both simulations and the z-band imaging data from the third data release of the DECam Legacy Survey.