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In this work, we develop a simulation-based model to predict the density split (DSS) and second-order shear and clustering statistics. A simulation-based model has the potential to model highly non-linear scales where current DSS models fail. To build this model, we use the \texttt{AbacusSummit} N-body simulation suite from which we measure all necessary statistics and train an emulator based on \texttt{CosmoPower}. In that context, we discuss possible improvements for future emulators to make the measurement less noisy and biased, resulting in more accurate and precise model predictions. Regarding the emulator's accuracy, we find that the most important aspect is the average of the summary statistics over multiple-shot noise realizations of the foreground galaxies. However, these results probably depend on the chosen number density of the foreground galaxies. Regarding the parameter forecast based on preliminary LOWZxUNIONS data, we find that DSS has more constraining power to derive cosmological parameters and that the joint analysis with second-order statistics is particularly useful for extracting parameters of the galaxy-halo connection., Comment: 16 pages, 16 Figures, submitted to physical review D

This letter presents, for the first time, direct constraints on the black-hole-to-halo-mass relation using weak gravitational lensing measurements. We construct type I and type II Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), with a mean redshift of 0.4 0.1 for type I (type II) AGNs. This sample is cross-correlated with weak lensing shear from the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Northern Survey (UNIONS). We compute the excess surface mass density of the halos associated with $36,181$ AGNs from $94,308,561$ lensed galaxies and fit the halo mass in bins of black-hole mass. We find that more massive AGNs reside in more massive halos. We see no evidence of dependence on AGN type or redshift in the black-hole-to-halo-mass relationship when systematic errors in the measured black-hole masses are included. Our results are consistent with previous measurements for non-AGN galaxies. At a fixed black-hole mass, our weak-lensing halo masses are consistent with galaxy rotation curves, but significantly lower than galaxy clustering measurements. Finally, our results are broadly consistent with state-of-the-art hydro-dynamical cosmological simulations, providing a new constraint for black-hole masses in simulations., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to ApJL

Cosmological parameters can be measured by comparing peculiar velocities with those predicted from a galaxy density field. Previous work has tested the accuracy of this approach with N-body simulations, but generally on idealised mock galaxy surveys. However, systematic biases may arise solely due to survey selection effects such as flux-limited samples, edge-effects, and complications due to the obscuration of the Galactic plane. In this work, we explore the impact of each of these effects individually well as collectively, using the semi-analytic models from numerical simulations to generate mock catalogues that mimic the 2M++ density field. We find the reconstruction and analysis methods used for our 2M++ mocks produce a value of fsigma_8 that is biased high by a factor 1.04 \pm 0.01 compared to the true value. Moreover, a cosmic volume matching that of 2M++ has a cosmic variance uncertainty in fsigma_8 of ~5%. The systematic bias is a function of distance: it is unbiased close to the origin but is biased slightly high for distances in the range 100-180 Mpc/h. Correcting for this small bias, we find the linear fsigma_8 = 0.362 \pm 0.023. The predicted peculiar velocities from 2M++ have an error of 170 km/s that slowly increases with distance, exceeding 200 km/s only at distances of 180-200 Mpc/h. Finally, the residual bulk flow speeds found in previous work are shown to be not in conflict with those expected in the Lambda cold dark matter model., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures

We present the discovery of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1, the least luminous known satellite of the Milky Way, which is estimated to have an absolute V-band magnitude of $+2.2^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$ mag, equivalent to a total stellar mass of 16$^{+6}_{-5}$ M$_{\odot}$. Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 was uncovered in the deep, wide-field Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) and is consistent with an old ($\tau > 11$ Gyr), metal-poor ([Fe/H] $\sim -2.2$) stellar population at a heliocentric distance of $\sim$ 10 kpc. Despite being compact ($r_{\text{h}} = 3\pm1$ pc) and composed of so few stars, we confirm the reality of Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 with Keck II/DEIMOS follow-up spectroscopy and identify 11 radial velocity members, 8 of which have full astrometric data from $Gaia$ and are co-moving based on their proper motions. Based on these 11 radial velocity members, we derive an intrinsic velocity dispersion of $3.7^{+1.4}_{-1.0}$ km s$^{-1}$ but some caveats preclude this value from being interpreted as a direct indicator of the underlying gravitational potential at this time. Primarily, the exclusion of the largest velocity outlier from the member list drops the velocity dispersion to $1.9^{+1.4}_{-1.1}$ km s$^{-1}$, and the subsequent removal of an additional outlier star produces an unresolved velocity dispersion. While the presence of binary stars may be inflating the measurement, the possibility of a significant velocity dispersion makes Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 a high priority candidate for multi-epoch spectroscopic follow-ups to deduce to true nature of this incredibly faint satellite., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables; Accepted for publication in ApJ

We forward model the difference in stellar age between post-coalescence mergers and a control sample with the same stellar mass, environmental density, and redshift. In particular, we use a pure sample of 445 post-coalescence mergers from the recent visually-confirmed post-coalescence merger sample identified by Bickley et al. and find that post-coalescence mergers are on average younger than control galaxies for $10<\log (M_\star/\mathrm{M}_\odot)<11$. The difference in age from matched controls is up to 1.5 Gyr, highest for lower stellar mass galaxies. We forward model this difference using parametric star formation histories, accounting for the pre-coalescence inspiral phase of enhanced star formation using close pair data, and a final additive burst of star formation at coalescence. We find a best-fitting stellar mass burst fraction of $f_\mathrm{burst}=\Delta M_\star/M_{\star,\mathrm{merger}}=0.18 \pm 0.02$ for $10<\log (M_\star/\mathrm{M}_\odot)<11$ galaxies, with no evidence of a trend in stellar mass. The modeled burst fraction is robust to choice of parametric star formation history, as well as differences in burst duration. The result appears consistent with some prior observationally-derived values, but is significantly higher than that found in hydrodynamical simulations. Using published Luminous InfraRed Galaxy (LIRG) star formation rates, we find a burst duration increasing with stellar mass, from $120-250$ Myr. A comparison to published cold gas measurements indicates there is enough molecular gas available in very close pairs to fuel the burst. Additionally, given our stellar mass burst estimate, the predicted cold gas fraction remaining after the burst is consistent with observed post-coalescence mergers., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 12 pages, 9 figures

The extragalactic distance scale is fundamental to our understanding of astrophysics and cosmology. In recent years, the surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) method, applied in the near-IR, has proven especially powerful for measuring galaxy distances, first with HST and now with a new JWST program to calibrate the method directly from the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). So far, however, the distances from space have been gathered slowly, one or two at a time. With the Roman Space Telescope, we have the opportunity to measure uniformly high-quality SBF distances to thousands of galaxies out to hundreds of Mpc. The impact of these data on cosmology and galaxy studies depends on the specifics of the survey, including the filter selection, exposure depth, and (especially) the sky coverage. While the baseline HLWAS survey in four filters plus the grism would yield useful data, the impact would be limited by the relatively small area. A more optimal approach would concentrate on the most efficient passband (F146), adopt an exposure time sufficient to measure good quality distances well out into the Hubble flow, and then maximize the sky coverage within the total time constraints. Grism observations over the same area can provide the needed information on redshifts and spectral energy distributions for compact sources, while colors for larger objects can be obtained from lower resolution surveys. The proposed plan will enable accurate determination of the physical properties of thousands of nearby galaxies, an independent measure of the Hubble constant $H_0$ with negligible statistical error, and competitive constraints on $S_8{\,=\,}\sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.5}$. The resulting data set will be a phenomenal resource for a wide range of studies in astrophysics and cosmology., Comment: 5 pages; submitted to the call for Roman Core Community Survey white papers (revised version corrects a couple references)

We forward-model mass-weighted stellar ages (MWAs) and quiescent fractions in projected phase space (PPS), using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, to jointly constrain an infall quenching model for galaxies in $\log(M_{\mathrm{vir}}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})>14$ galaxy clusters at $z\sim 0$. We find the average deviation in MWA from the MWA-$M_\star$ relation depends on position in PPS, with a maximum difference between the inner cluster and infalling interloper galaxies of $\sim 1$ Gyr. Our model employs infall information from N-body simulations and stochastic star-formation histories from the UniverseMachine model. We find total quenching times of $t_\mathrm{Q}=3.7\pm 0.4$ Gyr and $t_\mathrm{Q}=4.0\pm 0.2$ Gyr after first pericentre, for $9<\log(M_{\star}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})<10$ and $10<\log(M_{\star}/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})<10.5$ galaxies, respectively. By using MWAs, we break the degeneracy in time of quenching onset and timescale of star formation rate (SFR) decline. We find that time of quenching onset relative to pericentre is $t_{\mathrm{delay}}=3.5^{+0.6}_{-0.9}$ Gyr and $t_{\mathrm{delay}}=-0.3^{+0.8}_{-1.0}$ Gyr for our lower and higher stellar mass bins, respectively, and exponential SFR suppression timescales are $\tau_{\mathrm{env}}\leq 1.0$ Gyr and $\tau_{\mathrm{env}}\sim 2.3$ Gyr for our lower and higher stellar mass bins, respectively. Stochastic star formation histories remove the need for rapid infall quenching to maintain the bimodality in the SFR of cluster galaxies; the depth of the green valley prefers quenching onsets close to first pericentre and a longer quenching envelope, in slight tension with the MWA-driven results. Taken together these results suggest that quenching begins close to, or just after pericentre, but the timescale for quenching to be fully complete is much longer and therefore ram-pressure stripping is not complete on first pericentric passage., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS (April 1 2023), 21 pages, 13 figures

Cold dark matter haloes are expected to be triaxial, and so appear elliptical in projection. We use weak gravitational lensing from the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) component of the Ultraviolet-Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) to measure the ellipticity of the dark matter haloes around Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (DR7) and from the CMASS and LOWZ samples of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), assuming their major axes are aligned with the stellar light. We find that DR7 LRGs with masses $M \sim 2.7\times10^{13} \mathrm{M}_{\odot}/h$ have halo ellipticities $e=0.46\pm0.10$. Expressed as a fraction of the galaxy ellipticity, we find $f_h = 2.2\pm0.6$. For BOSS LRGs, the detection is of marginal significance: $e = 0.20\pm0.10$ and $f_h=0.7\pm0.7$. These results are in agreement with other measurements of halo ellipticity from weak lensing and, taken together with previous results, suggest an increase of halo ellipticity of $0.10\pm0.06$ per decade in halo mass. This trend agrees with the predictions from hydrodynamical simulations, which find that at higher halo masses, not only do dark matter haloes become more elliptical, but that the misalignment between major axis of the stellar light in the central galaxy and that of the dark matter decreases., Comment: MNRAS, accepted

The importance of the post-merger epoch in galaxy evolution has been well-documented, but post-mergers are notoriously difficult to identify. While the features induced by mergers can sometimes be distinctive, they are frequently missed by visual inspection. In addition, visual classification efforts are highly inefficient because of the inherent rarity of post-mergers (~1% in the low-redshift Universe), and non-parametric statistical merger selection methods do not account for the diversity of post-mergers or the environments in which they appear. To address these issues, we deploy a convolutional neural network (CNN) which has been trained and evaluated on realistic mock observations of simulated galaxies from the IllustrisTNG simulations, to galaxy images from the Canada France Imaging Survey (CFIS), which is part of the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS). We present the characteristics of the galaxies with the highest CNN-predicted post-merger certainties, as well as a visually confirmed subset of 699 post-mergers. We find that post-mergers with high CNN merger probabilities (p(x)>0.8) have an average star formation rate that is 0.1 dex higher than a mass- and redshift-matched control sample. The SFR enhancement is even greater in the visually confirmed post-merger sample, a factor of two higher than the control sample., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, visually confirmed post-merger catalog available via MNRAS

UNIONS is an ongoing deep photometric multi-band survey of the Northern sky. As part of UNIONS, CFIS provides r-band data which we use to study weak-lensing peak counts for cosmological inference. We assess systematic effects for weak-lensing peak counts and their impact on cosmological parameters for the UNIONS survey. In particular, we present results on local calibration, metacalibration shear bias, baryonic feedback, the source galaxy redshift estimate, intrinsic alignment, and the cluster member dilution. For each uncertainty and systematic effect, we describe our mitigation scheme and the impact on cosmological parameter constraints. We obtain constraints on cosmological parameters from MCMC using CFIS data and MassiveNuS N-body simulations as a model for peak counts statistics. Depending on the calibration (local versus global, and the inclusion of the residual multiplicative shear bias), the mean matter density parameter $\Omega_m$ can shift up to $-0.024$ ($-0.5\sigma$). We also see that including baryonic corrections can shift $\Omega_m$ by $+0.027$ ($+0.5 \sigma$) with respect to the DM-only simulations. Reducing the impact of the intrinsic alignment and cluster member dilution through signal-to-noise cuts can lead to a shift in $\Omega_m$ of $+0.027$ ($+0.5 \sigma$). Finally, with a mean redshift uncertainty of $\Delta \bar{z} = 0.03$, we see that the shift of $\Omega_m$ ($+0.001$ which corresponds to $+0.02 \sigma$) is not significant. This paper investigates for the first time with UNIONS weak-lensing data and peak counts the impact of systematic effects. The value of $\Omega_m$ is the most impacted and can shift up to $\sim 0.03$ which corresponds to $0.5\sigma$ depending on the choices for each systematics. We expect constraints to become more reliable with future (larger) data catalogues, for which the current pipeline will provide a starting point., Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures

UNIONS is an ongoing collaboration that will provide the largest deep photometric survey of the Northern sky in four optical bands to date. As part of this collaboration, CFIS is taking $r$-band data with an average seeing of 0.65 arcsec, which is complete to magnitude 24.5 and thus ideal for weak-lensing studies. We perform the first weak-lensing analysis of CFIS $r$-band data over an area spanning 1700 deg$^2$ of the sky. We create a catalogue with measured shapes for 40 million galaxies, corresponding to an effective density of 6.8 galaxies per square arcminute, and demonstrate a low level of systematic biases. This work serves as the basis for further cosmological studies using the full UNIONS survey of 4800 deg$^2$ when completed. Here we present ShapePipe, a newly developed weak-lensing pipeline. This pipeline makes use of state-of-the-art methods such as Ngmix for accurate galaxy shape measurement. Shear calibration is performed with metacalibration. We carry out extensive validation tests on the Point Spread Function (PSF), and on the galaxy shapes. In addition, we create realistic image simulations to validate the estimated shear. We quantify the PSF model accuracy and show that the level of systematics is low as measured by the PSF residuals. Their effect on the shear two-point correlation function is sub-dominant compared to the cosmological contribution on angular scales <100 arcmin. The additive shear bias is below 5x$10^{-4}$, and the residual multiplicative shear bias is at most $10^{-3}$ as measured on image simulations. Using COSEBIs we show that there are no significant B-modes present in second-order shear statistics. We present convergence maps and see clear correlations of the E-mode with known cluster positions. We measure the stacked tangential shear profile around Planck clusters at a significance higher than $4\sigma$.

We study the stacked filaments connecting group-mass halo pairs, using dark-matter-only N-body simulations. We calculate the dark matter over-density profile of these stacked filaments at different redshifts as a function of the distance perpendicular to the filament axis. A four-parameter universal functional form, including three comoving scale radii and one amplitude parameter (core density), provides a good fit out to a radius of 20 cMpc/h for stacked filaments over a range of redshifts, lengths and masses. The scale radii are approximately independent of redshift but increase as power-laws with the comoving filament length. Lastly, we compare the scaling of the filament mass measured directly from the simulations to the predicted scaling from the halo-halo-matter three-point correlation function as a function of redshift and of the mass of the halo pairs. We find that both measured scalings are similar to, but somewhat shallower than the predictions, by 10% and 30%, respectively. These results provide a template to interpret present and upcoming observational results based on stacking, for example, weak lensing, thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich, or X-ray observations., Comment: 15 pages. 11 figures. Accepted by MNRAS. Comments welcome

We present a forward-modelled velocity field reconstruction algorithm that performs the reconstruction of the mass density field using only peculiar velocity data. Our method consistently accounts for the inhomogeneous Malmquist bias using analytic integration along the line-of-sight. By testing our method on a simulation, we show that our method gives an unbiased reconstruction of the velocity field. We show that not accounting for the inhomogeneous Malmquist bias can lead to significant biases in the forward-modelled reconstructions. We applied our method to a peculiar velocity data set consisting of the SFI++ and 2MTF Tully-Fisher catalogues and the A2 supernovae compilation, thus obtaining a novel velocity reconstruction in the local Universe. Our velocity reconstructions have a cosmological power spectrum consistent with the theoretical expectation. Furthermore, we obtain a full description of the uncertainties on reconstruction through samples of the posterior distribution. We validate our velocity reconstruction of the local Universe by comparing it to an independent reconstruction using the 2M++ galaxy catalogue, obtaining good agreement between the two reconstructions. Using Bayesian model comparison, we find that our velocity model performs better than the adaptive kernel smoothed velocity with the same peculiar velocity data. However, our velocity model does not perform as well as the velocity reconstruction from the 2M++ galaxy catalogue, due to the sparse and noisy nature of the peculiar velocity tracer samples. The method presented here provides a way to include peculiar velocity data in initial condition reconstruction frameworks., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, To be submitted to MNRAS

We present a search for disturbed, candidate ram pressure stripping galaxies across more than 50 spectroscopically selected SDSS groups and clusters. Forty-eight ram pressure candidates are visually identified in these systems using high quality UNIONS imaging from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope, covering ~6200 and ~2800 square degrees in the u- and r-bands respectively. Ram pressure candidates are found in groups and clusters spanning a wide range in halo mass and include ~30 ram pressure candidates in the group regime ($M_h < 10^{14}$). The observed frequency of ram pressure candidates shows substantial scatter with group/cluster mass, but on average is larger in clusters ($M_h > 10^{14}\,M_\odot$) than groups ($M_h < 10^{14}\,M_\odot$) by a factor of ~2. We find that ram pressure candidates are most commonly low-mass galaxies and have enhanced star formation rates relative to star-forming field galaxies. The enhancement in star formation is largely independent of galaxy mass and strongest for galaxies in clusters. As a result of the large survey footprint and excellent image quality from UNIONS, we are able to identify disturbed galaxies, potentially affected by ram pressure stripping, across a wide range of host environment., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 appendix, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the Democratic Samples of Supernovae (DSS), a compilation of 775 low-redshift Type Ia and II supernovae (SNe Ia & II), of which 137 SN Ia distances are derived via the newly developed snapshot distance method. Using the objects in the DSS as tracers of the peculiar-velocity field, we compare against the corresponding reconstruction from the 2M++ galaxy redshift survey. Our analysis -- which takes special care to properly weight each DSS subcatalogue and cross-calibrate the relative distance scales between them -- results in a measurement of the cosmological parameter combination $f\sigma_8 = 0.390_{-0.022}^{+0.022}$ as well as an external bulk flow velocity of $195_{-23}^{+22}$ km s$^{-1}$ in the direction $(\ell, b) = (292_{-7}^{+7}, -6_{-4}^{+5})$ deg, which originates from beyond the 2M++ reconstruction. Similarly, we find a bulk flow of $245_{-31}^{+32}$ km s$^{-1}$ toward $(\ell, b) = (294_{-7}^{+7}, 3_{-5}^{+6})$ deg on a scale of $\sim 30 h^{-1}$ Mpc if we ignore the reconstructed peculiar-velocity field altogether. Our constraint on $f\sigma_8$ -- the tightest derived from SNe to date (considering only statistical error bars), and the only one to utilise SNe II -- is broadly consistent with other results from the literature. We intend for our data accumulation and treatment techniques to become the prototype for future studies that will exploit the unprecedented data volume from upcoming wide-field surveys., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) will consist of deep, high-resolution r-band imaging over ~5000 square degrees of the sky, representing a first-rate opportunity to identify recently-merged galaxies. Due to the large number of galaxies in CFIS, we investigate the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for automated merger classification. Training samples of post-merger and isolated galaxy images are generated from the IllustrisTNG simulation processed with the observational realism code RealSim. The CNN's overall classification accuracy is 88 percent, remaining stable over a wide range of intrinsic and environmental parameters. We generate a mock galaxy survey from IllustrisTNG in order to explore the expected purity of post-merger samples identified by the CNN. Despite the CNN's good performance in training, the intrinsic rarity of post-mergers leads to a sample that is only ~6 percent pure when the default decision threshold is used. We investigate trade-offs in purity and completeness with a variable decision threshold and find that we recover the statistical distribution of merger-induced star formation rate enhancements. Finally, the performance of the CNN is compared with both traditional automated methods and human classifiers. The CNN is shown to outperform Gini-M20 and asymmetry methods by an order of magnitude in post-merger sample purity on the mock survey data. Although the CNN outperforms the human classifiers on sample completeness, the purity of the post-merger sample identified by humans is frequently higher, indicating that a hybrid approach to classifications may be an effective solution to merger classifications in large surveys., Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The orbital parameters of dark matter (DM) subhaloes play an essential role in determining their mass-loss rates and overall spatial distribution within a host halo. Haloes in cosmological simulations grow by a combination of relatively smooth accretion and more violent mergers, and both processes will modify subhalo orbits. To isolate the impact of the smooth growth of the host halo from other relevant mechanisms, we study subhalo orbital evolution using numerical calculations in which subhaloes are modelled as massless particles orbiting in a time-varying spherical potential. We find that the radial action of the subhalo orbit decreases over the first few orbits, indicating that the response to the growth of the host halo is not adiabatic during this phase. The subhalo orbits can shrink by a factor of $\sim$1.5 in this phase. Subsequently, the radial action is well conserved and orbital contraction slows down. We propose a model accurately describing the orbital evolution. Given these results, we consider the spatial distribution of the population of subhaloes identified in high-resolution cosmological simulations. We find that it is consistent with this population having been accreted at z < 3, indicating that any subhaloes accreted earlier are unresolved in the simulations. We also discuss tidal stripping as a formation scenario for NGC1052-DF2, an ultra diffuse galaxy significantly lacking DM, and find that its expected DM mass could be consistent with observational constraints if its progenitor was accreted early enough, z > 1.5, although it should still be a relatively rare object., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

A promising method for measuring the cosmological parameter combination fsigma_8 is to compare observed peculiar velocities with peculiar velocities predicted from a galaxy density field using perturbation theory. We use N-body simulations and semi-analytic galaxy formation models to quantify the accuracy and precision of this method. Specifically, we examine a number of technical aspects, including the optimal smoothing length applied to the density field, the use of dark matter halos or galaxies as tracers of the density field, the effect of noise in the halo mass estimates or in the stellar-to-halo mass relation, and the effect of finite survey volumes. We find that for a Gaussian smoothing of 4 Mpc/h, the method has only small systematic biases at the level of 5%. Cosmic variance affects current measurements at the 5% level due to the volume of current redshift data sets., Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

When measuring the value of the Hubble parameter, $H_0$, it is necessary to know the recession velocity free of the effects of peculiar velocities. In this work, we study different models of peculiar velocity in the local Universe. In particular, we compare models based on density reconstruction from galaxy redshift surveys and kernel smoothing of peculiar velocity data. The velocity field from the density reconstruction is obtained using the 2M++ galaxy redshift compilation, which is compared to two adaptive kernel-smoothed velocity fields: the first obtained from the 6dF Fundamental Plane sample and the other using a Tully-Fisher catalogue obtained by combining SFI++ and 2MTF. We highlight that smoothed velocity fields should be rescaled to obtain unbiased velocity estimates. Comparing the predictions of these models to the observations from a few test sets of peculiar velocity data, obtained from the Second Amendment Supernovae catalogue and the Tully-Fisher catalogues, we find that 2M++ reconstruction provides a better model of the peculiar velocity in the local Universe than the kernel-smoothed peculiar velocity models. We study the impact of peculiar velocities on the measurement of $H_0$ from gravitational waves and megamasers. In doing so, we introduce a probabilistic framework to marginalize over the peculiar velocity corrections along the line-of-sight. For the megamasers, we find $H_0 = 69^{+2.9}_{-2.8}$ km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1} using the 2M++ velocity field. We also study the peculiar velocity of the the galaxy NGC1052-DF2, concluding that a short $\sim$ 13 Mpc distance is not a likely explanation of the anomalously low dark matter fraction of that galaxy., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS

We combine orbital information from N-body simulations with an analytic model for star formation quenching and SDSS observations to infer the differential effect of the group/cluster environment on star formation in satellite galaxies. We also consider a model for gas stripping, using the same input supplemented with HI fluxes from the ALFALFA survey. The models are motivated by and tested on the Hydrangea cosmological hydrodynamical simulation suite. We recover the characteristic times when satellite galaxies are stripped and quenched. Stripping in massive ($M_\mathrm{ vir}\sim 10^{14.5}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$) clusters typically occurs at or just before the first pericentric passage. Lower mass ($\sim10^{13.5}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$) groups strip their satellites on a significantly longer (by $\sim3\,\mathrm{Gyr}$) timescale. Quenching occurs later: Balmer emission lines typically fade $\sim3.5\,\mathrm{Gyr}$ ($5.5\,\mathrm{Gyr}$) after first pericentre in clusters (groups), followed a few hundred $\mathrm{Myr}$ later by reddenning in $(g-r)$ colour. These `delay timescales' are remarkably constant across the entire satellite stellar mass range probed ($\sim10^{9.5}-10^{11}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$), a feature closely tied to our treatment of `group pre-processing'. The lowest mass groups in our sample ($\sim10^{12.5}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$) strip and quench their satellites extremely inefficiently: typical timescales may approach the age of the Universe. Our measurements are qualitatively consistent with the `delayed-then-rapid' quenching scenario advocated for by several other studies, but we find significantly longer delay times. Our combination of a homogeneous analysis and input catalogues yields new insight into the sequence of events leading to quenching across wide intervals in host and satellite mass., Comment: MNRAS accepted version. 25 pages, 11 figures. Appendices included in the source tarball (Download: Other formats: source)

Measurement of peculiar velocities by combining redshifts and distance indicators is a powerful way to measure the growth rate of cosmic structure and test theories of gravity at low redshift. Here we constrain the growth rate of structure by comparing observed Fundamental Plane peculiar velocities for 15894 galaxies from the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with predicted velocities and densities from the 2M$++$ redshift survey. We measure the velocity scale parameter $\beta \equiv {\Omega_m^\gamma}/b = 0.372^{+0.034}_{-0.050}$ and $0.314^{+0.031}_{-0.047}$ for 6dFGS and SDSS respectively, where $\Omega_m$ is the mass density parameter, $\gamma$ is the growth index, and $b$ is the bias parameter normalized to the characteristic luminosity of galaxies, $L^*$. Combining 6dFGS and SDSS we obtain $\beta= 0.341\pm0.024$, implying that the amplitude of the product of the growth rate and the mass fluctuation amplitude is $f\sigma_8 = 0.338\pm0.027$ at an effective redshift $z=0.035$. Adopting $\Omega_m = 0.315\pm0.007$ as favoured by Planck and using $\gamma=6/11$ for General Relativity and $\gamma=11/16$ for DGP gravity, we get $S_8(z=0) = \sigma_8 \sqrt{\Omega_m/0.3} =0.637 \pm 0.054$ and $0.741\pm0.062$ for GR and DGP respectively. This measurement agrees with other low-redshift probes of large scale structure but deviates by more than $3\sigma$ from the latest Planck CMB measurement. Our results favour values of the growth index $\gamma > 6/11$ or a Hubble constant $H_0 > 70$\,km\,s$^{-1}$\,Mpc$^{-1}$ or a fluctuation amplitude $\sigma_8 < 0.8$ or some combination of these. Imminent redshift surveys such as Taipan, DESI, WALLABY, and SKA1-MID will help to resolve this tension by measuring the growth rate of cosmic structure to 1\% in the redshift range $0 < z < 1$., Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The cold dark matter model predicts that dark matter haloes are connected by filaments. Direct measurements of the masses and structure of these filaments are difficult, but recently several studies have detected these dark-matter-dominated filaments using weak lensing. Here we study the efficiency of galaxy formation within the filaments by measuring their total mass-to-light ratios and stellar mass fractions. Specifically, we stack pairs of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) with a typical separation on the sky of $8 h^{-1}$ Mpc. We stack background galaxy shapes around pairs to obtain mass maps through weak lensing, and we stack galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to obtain maps of light and stellar mass. To isolate the signal from the filament, we construct two matched catalogues of physical and non-physical (projected) LRG pairs, with the same distributions of redshift and separation. We then subtract the two stacked maps. Using LRG pair samples from the BOSS survey at two different redshifts, we find that the evolution of the mass in filament is consistent with the predictions from perturbation theory. The filaments are not entirely dark: their mass-to-light ratios ($M/L = 351\pm137$ in solar units in the $r$-band) and stellar mass fractions ($M_{\rm stellar}/M = 0.0073\pm0.0030$) are consistent with the cosmic values (and with their redshift evolutions), Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. Accepted by MNRAS. Including more discussions regarding the three-point correlation function. Comments are welcomed

The peculiar velocity field offers a unique way to probe dark matter density field on large scales at low redshifts. In this work, we have compiled a new sample of 465 peculiar velocities from low redshift $(z < 0.067)$ Type Ia supernovae. We compare the reconstructed velocity field derived from the 2M++ galaxy redshift compilation to the supernovae, the SFI++ and the 2MTF Tully-Fisher distance catalogues. We used a forward method to jointly infer the distances and the velocities of distance indicators by comparing the observations to the reconstruction. Comparison of the reconstructed peculiar velocity fields to observations allows us to infer the cosmological parameter combination $f\sigma_8$, and the bulk flow velocity arising from outside the survey volume. The residual bulk flow arising from outside the 2M++ volume is inferred to be $171^{+11}_{-11}$ km s$^{-1}$ in the direction $l=301^{\circ} \pm 4^{\circ}$ and $b=0^{\circ} \pm 3^{\circ}$. We obtain $f\sigma_{8} = 0.400 \pm 0.017$, equivalent to $S_8 \approx \sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.3)^{0.55}=0.776\pm0.033$, which corresponds to an approximately $ 4\%\,$ statistical uncertainty on the value of $f\sigma_8$. Our inferred value is consistent with other low redshift results in the literature., Comment: MNRAS accepted version

An ambitious goal in cosmology is to forward-model the observed distribution of galaxies in the nearby Universe today from the initial conditions of large-scale structures. For practical reasons, the spatial resolution at which this can be done is necessarily limited. Consequently, one needs a mapping between the density of dark matter averaged over ~Mpc scales, and the distribution of dark matter halos (used as a proxy for galaxies) in the same region. Here we demonstrate a method for determining the halo mass distribution function by learning the tracer bias between density fields and halo catalogues using a neural bias model. The method is based on the Bayesian analysis of simple, physically motivated, neural network-like architectures, which we denote as neural physical engines, and neural density estimation. As a result, we are able to sample the initial phases of the dark matter density field whilst inferring the parameters describing the halo mass distribution function, providing a fully Bayesian interpretation of both the initial dark matter density distribution and the neural bias model. We successfully run an upgraded BORG inference using our new likelihood and neural bias model with halo catalogues derived from full N-body simulations. We notice orders of magnitude improvement in modelling compared to classical biasing techniques., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

ATLAS (Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy) is a concept for a NASA probe-class space mission. It is the spectroscopic follow-up mission to WFIRST, boosting its scientific return by obtaining deep NIR & MIR slit spectroscopy for most of the galaxies imaged by the WFIRST High Latitude Survey at z>0.5. ATLAS will measure accurate and precise redshifts for ~200M galaxies out to z=7 and beyond, and deliver spectra that enable a wide range of diagnostic studies of the physical properties of galaxies over most of cosmic history. ATLAS and WFIRST together will produce a definitive 3D map of the Universe over 2000 sq deg. ATLAS Science Goals are: (1) Discover how galaxies have evolved in the cosmic web of dark matter from cosmic dawn through the peak era of galaxy assembly. (2) Discover the nature of cosmic acceleration. (3) Probe the Milky Way's dust-enshrouded regions, reaching the far side of our Galaxy. (4) Discover the bulk compositional building blocks of planetesimals formed in the outer Solar System. These flow down to the ATLAS Scientific Objectives: (1A) Trace the relation between galaxies and dark matter with less than 10% shot noise on relevant scales at 1

(Abridged) The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is an end-to-end science platform for the design, execution and scientific exploitation of spectroscopic surveys. It will unveil the composition and dynamics of the faint Universe and impact nearly every field of astrophysics across all spatial scales, from individual stars to the largest scale structures in the Universe. Major pillars in the science program for MSE include (i) the ultimate Gaia follow-up facility for understanding the chemistry and dynamics of the distant Milky Way, including the outer disk and faint stellar halo at high spectral resolution (ii) galaxy formation and evolution at cosmic noon, via the type of revolutionary surveys that have occurred in the nearby Universe, but now conducted at the peak of the star formation history of the Universe (iii) derivation of the mass of the neutrino and insights into inflationary physics through a cosmological redshift survey that probes a large volume of the Universe with a high galaxy density. MSE is positioned to become a critical hub in the emerging international network of front-line astronomical facilities, with scientific capabilities that naturally complement and extend the scientific power of Gaia, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the Square Kilometer Array, Euclid, WFIRST, the 30m telescopes and many more., Comment: 9 chapters, 301 pages, 100 figures. This version of the DSC is a comprehensive update of the original version, released in 2016, which can be downloaded at arXiv:1606.00043. A detailed summary of the design of MSE is available in the MSE Book 2018, available at arXiv:1810.08695

The nature of dark energy remains a profound mystery 20 years after the discovery of cosmic acceleration. A very high number density galaxy redshift survey over a wide area (HD GRS Wide) spanning the redshift range of 0.5

This document summarizes the science cases related to cosmology studies with the MaunaKea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE), a highly-multiplexed (4332 fibers), wide FOV (1.5 sq deg), large aperture (11.25 m in diameter), optical/NIR (360nm to 1300nm) facility. The MSE High-z Cosmology Survey is designed to probe a large volume of the Universe with a galaxy density sufficient to measure the extremely-large-scale density fluctuations required to explore primordial non-Gaussianity and therefore inflation. We expect a measurement of the local parameter $f_{NL}$ to a precision $\sigma(f_{NL}) = 1.8$. Combining the MSE High-z Cosmology Survey data with data from a next generation CMB stage 4 experiment and existing DESI data will provide the first $5\sigma$ confirmation of the neutrino mass hierarchy from astronomical observations. In addition, the Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) observed within the sample will provide measurements of the distance-redshift relationship in six different redshift bins between $z=1.6$ and 4.0, each with an accuracy of $\sim0.6\%$. The simultaneous measurements of Redshift Space Distortions (RSD) constrain the amplitude of the fluctuations, at a level ranging from $1.9\%$ to $3.6\%$. The proposed survey covers 10,000 ${\rm deg}^2$, measuring redshifts for three classes of target objects: Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) with $1.6

We use integral field spectroscopy from the SAMI Galaxy Survey to identify galaxies that show evidence for recent quenching of star formation. The galaxies exhibit strong Balmer absorption in the absence of ongoing star formation in more than 10% of their spectra within the SAMI field of view. These $\rm{H}{\delta}$-strong galaxies (HDSGs) are rare, making up only $\sim 2$% (25/1220) of galaxies with stellar mass ${\rm log(}M_*/M_{\odot})>10$. The HDSGs make up a significant fraction of non-passive cluster galaxies (15%; 17/115) and a smaller fraction (2.0%; 8/387) of the non-passive population in low-density environments. The majority (9/17) of cluster HDSGs show evidence for star formation at their centers, with the HDS regions found in the outer parts of the galaxy. Conversely, the $\rm{H}{\delta}$-strong signal is more evenly spread across the galaxy for the majority (6/8) of HDSGs in low-density environments, and is often associated with emission lines that are not due to star formation. We investigate the location of the HDSGs in the clusters, finding that they are exclusively within 0.6$R_{200}$ of the cluster centre, and have a significantly higher velocity dispersion relative to the cluster population. Comparing their distribution in projected-phase-space to those derived from cosmological simulations indicates that the cluster HDSGs are consistent with an infalling population that have entered the central 0.5$r_{200, 3D}$ cluster region within the last $\sim 1\,$Gyr. In the 8/9 cluster HDSGs with central star formation, the extent of star formation is consistent with that expected of outside-in quenching by ram-pressure stripping. Our results indicate that the cluster HDSGs are currently being quenched by ram-pressure stripping on their first passage through the cluster., Comment: 44 pages (including 8 pages of appendices), 18 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publicatioin in ApJ

Cosmic acceleration is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades. Testing and distinguishing among possible explanations requires cosmological measurements of extremely high precision probing the full history of cosmic expansion and structure growth and, ideally, compare and contrast matter and relativistic tracers of the gravity potential. This program is one of the defining objectives of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), as set forth in the New Worlds, New Horizons report (NWNH) in 2010. The WFIRST mission has the ability to improve these measurements by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared to the current state of the art, while simultaneously extending their redshift grasp, greatly improving control of systematic effects, and taking a unified approach to multiple probes that provide complementary physical information and cross-checks of cosmological results. We describe in this annual report the activities of the Science Investigation Team (SIT) "Cosmology with the High Latitude Survey (HLS)" during the year 2017. This team was selected by NASA in December 2015 in order to address the stringent challenges of the WFIRST dark energy (DE) program through the Project's formulation phase. This SIT has elected to jointly address Galaxy Redshift Survey, Weak Lensing and Cluster Growth and thus fully embrace the fact that the imaging and spectroscopic elements of the HLS will be realized as an integrated observing program, and they jointly impose requirements on performance and operations. WFIRST is designed to be able to deliver a definitive result on the origin of cosmic acceleration. It is not optimized for Figure of Merit sensitivity but for control of systematic uncertainties and for having multiple techniques each with multiple cross-checks. Our SIT work focuses on understanding the potential systematics in the WFIRST DE measurements., Comment: This document is an annual report. A higher version of this document can be found here (http://www.wfirst-hls-cosmology.org/products/). This document does not constitute an official WFIRST Project document

ATLAS (Astrophysics Telescope for Large Area Spectroscopy) Probe is a concept for a NASA probe-class space mission. It is the follow-up space mission to WFIRST, boosting its scientific return by obtaining deep IR slit spectroscopy for 70% of all galaxies imaged by a 2000 sq deg WFIRST High Latitude Survey at z>0.5. ATLAS will measure accurate and precise redshifts for 200M galaxies out to z < 7, and deliver spectra that enable a wide range of diagnostic studies of the physical properties of galaxies over most of cosmic history. ATLAS Probe science spans four broad categories: (1) Revolutionizing galaxy evolution studies by tracing the relation between galaxies and dark matter from galaxy groups to cosmic voids and filaments, from the epoch of reionization through the peak era of galaxy assembly; (2) Opening a new window into the dark Universe by weighing the dark matter filaments using 3D weak lensing with spectroscopic redshifts, and obtaining definitive measurements of dark energy and modification of General Relativity using galaxy clustering; (3) Probing the Milky Way's dust-enshrouded regions, reaching the far side of our Galaxy; and (4) Exploring the formation history of the outer Solar System by characterizing Kuiper Belt Objects. ATLAS Probe is a 1.5m telescope with a field of view of 0.4 sq deg, and uses Digital Micro-mirror Devices (DMDs) as slit selectors. It has a spectroscopic resolution of R = 1000 over 1-4 microns, and a spectroscopic multiplex factor >5,000. ATLAS is designed to fit within the NASA probe-class space mission cost envelope; it has a single instrument, a telescope aperture that allows for a lighter launch vehicle, and mature technology. ATLAS Probe will lead to transformative science over the entire range of astrophysics: from galaxy evolution to the dark Universe, from Solar System objects to the dusty regions of the Milky Way., Comment: 46 pages. Accepted by PASA

We present the chemical distribution of the Milky Way, based on 2,900$\, {\rm deg^2}$ of $u$-band photometry taken as part of the Canada-France Imaging Survey. When complete, this survey will cover 10,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$ of the Northern sky. By combing the CFHT $u$-band photometry together with SDSS and Pan-STARRS $g,r,$ and $i$, we demonstrate that we are able to measure reliably the metallicities of individual stars to $\sim 0.2$ dex, and hence additionally obtain good photometric distance estimates. This survey thus permits the measurement of metallicities and distances of the dominant main-sequence population out to approximately 30 kpc, and provides much higher number of stars at large extraplanar distances than have been available from previous surveys. We develop a non-parametric distance-metallicity decomposition algorithm and apply it to the sky at $30\deg < |b| < 70\deg$ and to the North Galactic Cap. We find that the metallicity-distance distribution is well-represented by three populations whose metallicity distributions do not vary significantly with vertical height above the disk. As traced in main-sequence stars, the stellar halo component shows a vertical density profile that is close to exponential, with a scale height of around 3 kpc. This may indicate that the inner halo was formed partly from disk stars ejected in an ancient minor merger., Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) will map the northern high Galactic latitude sky in the $u$-band ("CFIS-u", 10,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$) and in the $r$-band ("CFIS-r", 5,000$\, {\rm deg^2}$), enabling a host of stand-alone science investigations, and providing some of the ground-based data necessary for photometric redshift determination for the Euclid mission. In this first contribution we present the $u$-band component of the survey, describe the observational strategy, and discuss some first highlight results, based on approximately one third of the final area. We show that the Galactic anticenter structure is distributed continuously along the line of sight, out to beyond 20 kpc, and possesses a metallicity distribution that is essentially identical to that of the outer disk sampled by APOGEE. This suggests that it is probably a buckled disk of old metal-rich stars, rather than a stream or a flare. We also discuss the future potential for CFIS-u in discovering star-forming dwarf galaxies around the Local Group, the characterization of the white dwarf and blue straggler population of the Milky Way, as well as its sensitivity to low-surface brightness structures in external galaxies., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Stellar mass has been shown to correlate with halo mass, with non-negligible scatter. The stellar mass-size and luminosity-size relationships of galaxies also show significant scatter in galaxy size at fixed stellar mass. It is possible that, at fixed stellar mass and galaxy colour, the halo mass is correlated with galaxy size. Galaxy-galaxy lensing allows us to measure the mean masses of dark matter haloes for stacked samples of galaxies. We extend the analysis of the galaxies in the CFHTLenS catalogue by fitting single S\'{e}rsic surface brightness profiles to the lens galaxies in order to recover half-light radius values, allowing us to determine halo masses for lenses according to their size. Comparing our halo masses and sizes to baselines for that stellar mass yields a differential measurement of the halo mass-galaxy size relationship at fixed stellar mass, defined as $M_{h}(M_{*}) \propto r_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\eta}(M_{*})$. We find that on average, our lens galaxies have an $\eta = 0.42\pm0.12$, i.e. larger galaxies live in more massive dark matter haloes. The $\eta$ is strongest for high mass luminous red galaxies (LRGs). Investigation of this relationship in hydrodynamical simulations suggests that, at a fixed $M_{*}$, satellite galaxies have a larger $\eta$ and greater scatter in the $M_{\mathrm{h}}$ and $r_{\mathrm{eff}}$ relationship compared to central galaxies., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures

The sizes of entire systems of globular clusters (GCs) depend on the formation and destruction histories of the GCs themselves, but also on the assembly, merger and accretion history of the dark matter (DM) haloes that they inhabit. Recent work has shown a linear relation between total mass of globular clusters in the globular cluster system and the mass of its host dark matter halo, calibrated from weak lensing. Here we extend this to GC system sizes, by studying the radial density profiles of GCs around galaxies in nearby galaxy groups. We find that radial density profiles of the GC systems are well fit with a de Vaucouleurs profile. Combining our results with those from the literature, we find tight relationship ($\sim 0.2$ dex scatter) between the effective radius of the GC system and the virial radius (or mass) of its host DM halo. The steep non-linear dependence of this relationship ($R_{e, GCS} \propto R_{200}^{2.5 - 3}$) is currently not well understood, but is an important clue regarding the assembly history of DM haloes and of the GC systems that they host., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcome

In the standard model of non-linear structure formation, a cosmic web of dark-matter dominated filaments connects dark matter halos. In this paper, we stack the weak lensing signal of an ensemble of filaments between groups and clusters of galaxies. Specifically, we detect the weak lensing signal, using CFHTLenS galaxy ellipticities, from stacked filaments between SDSS-III/BOSS luminous red galaxies (LRGs). As a control, we compare the physical LRG pairs with projected LRG pairs that are more widely separated in redshift space. We detect the excess filament mass density in the projected pairs at the $5\sigma$ level, finding a mass of $(1.6 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{13} M_{\odot}$ for a stacked filament region 7.1 $h^{-1}$ Mpc long and 2.5 $h^{-1}$ Mpc wide. This filament signal is compared with a model based on the three-point galaxy-galaxy-convergence correlation function, as developed in Clampitt, Jain & Takada (2014), yielding reasonable agreement., Comment: MNRAS, in press