Search

The Galactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey is a large-scale stellar spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way, designed to deliver complementary chemical information to a large number of stars covered by the Gaia mission. We present the GALAH second public data release (GALAH DR2) containing 342 682 stars. For these stars, the GALAH collaboration provides stellar parameters and abundances for up to 23 elements to the community. Here we present the target selection, observation, data reduction, and detailed explanation of how the spectra were analysed to estimate stellar parameters and element abundances. For the stellar analysis, we have used a multistep approach. We use the physics-driven spectrum synthesis of Spectroscopy Made Easy (SME) to derive stellar labels (T eff, log  g, [Fe/H], [X/Fe], v mic, v sin  i, $$A_{K_S}$$) for a representative training set of stars. This information is then propagated to the whole sample with the data-driven method of The Cannon. Special care has been exercised in the spectral synthesis to only consider spectral lines that have reliable atomic input data and are little affected by blending lines. Departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) are considered for several key elements, including Li, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, and Fe, using 1D marcs stellar atmosphere models. Validation tests including repeat observations, Gaia benchmark stars, open and globular clusters, and K2 asteroseismic targets lend confidence to our methods and results. Combining the GALAH DR2 catalogue with the kinematic information from Gaia will enable a wide range of Galactic Archaeology studies, with unprecedented detail, dimensionality, and scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shear Testing Programme (STEP) is a collaborative project to improve the accuracy and reliability of weak-lensing measurement, in preparation for the next generation of wide-field surveys. We review 16 current and emerging shear-measurement methods in a common language, and assess their performance by running them (blindly) on simulated images that contain a known shear signal. We determine the common features of algorithms that most successfully recover the input parameters. A desirable goal would be the combination of their best elements into one ultimate shear-measurement method. In this analysis, we achieve previously unattained discriminatory precision via a combination of more extensive simulations and pairs of galaxy images that have been rotated with respect to each other. That removes the otherwise overwhelming noise from their intrinsic ellipticities. Finally, the robustness of our simulation approach is confirmed by testing the relative calibration of methods on real data. Weak-lensing measurements have improved since the first STEP paper. Several methods now consistently achieve better than 2 per cent precision, and are still being developed. However, we can now distinguish all methods from perfect performance. Our main concern continues to be the potential for a multiplicative shear calibration bias: not least because this cannot be internally calibrated with real data. We determine which galaxy populations are responsible for bias and, by adjusting the simulated observing conditions, we also investigate the effects of instrumental and atmospheric parameters. The simulated point spread functions are not allowed to vary spatially, to avoid additional confusion from interpolation errors. We have isolated several previously unrecognized aspects of galaxy shape measurement, in which focused development could provide further progress towards the sub-per cent level of precision desired for future surveys. These areas include the suitable treatment of image pixellization and galaxy morphology evolution. Ignoring the former effect affects the measurement of shear in different directions, leading to an overall underestimation of shear and hence the amplitude of the matter power spectrum. Ignoring the second effect could affect the calibration of shear estimators as a function of galaxy redshift, and the evolution of the lensing signal, which will be vital to measure parameters including the dark energy equation of state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]