Search

We present the samples of galaxies and quasars used for DESI 2024 cosmological analyses, drawn from the DESI Data Release 1 (DR1). We describe the construction of large-scale structure (LSS) catalogs from these samples, which include matched sets of synthetic reference `randoms' and weights that account for variations in the observed density of the samples due to experimental design and varying instrument performance. We detail how we correct for variations in observational completeness, the input `target' densities due to imaging systematics, and the ability to confidently measure redshifts from DESI spectra. We then summarize how remaining uncertainties in the corrections can be translated to systematic uncertainties for particular analyses. We describe the weights added to maximize the signal-to-noise of DESI DR1 2-point clustering measurements. We detail measurement pipelines applied to the LSS catalogs that obtain 2-point clustering measurements in configuration and Fourier space. The resulting 2-point measurements depend on window functions and normalization constraints particular to each sample, and we present the corrections required to match models to the data. We compare the configuration- and Fourier-space 2-point clustering of the data samples to that recovered from simulations of DESI DR1 and find they are, generally, in statistical agreement to within 2\% in the inferred real-space over-density field. The LSS catalogs, 2-point measurements, and their covariance matrices will be released publicly with DESI DR1., Comment: This DESI Collaboration Key Publication is part of the 2024 publication series using the first year of observations (see https://data.desi.lbl.gov/doc/papers/)

Accurate modeling of galaxy distributions is paramount for cosmological analysis using galaxy redshift surveys. However, this endeavor is often hindered by the computational complexity of resolving the dark matter halos that host these galaxies. To address this challenge, we propose the development of effective assembly bias models down to small scales, i.e., going beyond the local density dependence capturing non-local cosmic evolution. We introduce a hierarchical cosmic web classification that indirectly captures up to third-order long- and short-range non-local bias terms. This classification system also enables us to maintain positive definite parametric bias expansions. Specifically, we subdivide the traditional cosmic web classification, which is based on the eigenvalues of the tidal field tensor, with an additional classification based on the Hessian matrix of the negative density contrast. We obtain the large-scale dark matter field on a mesh with $\sim3.9\,h^{-1}$ Mpc cell side resolution through Augmented Lagrangian Perturbation Theory. To assess the effectiveness of our model, we conduct tests using a reference halo catalogue extracted from the UNIT project simulation, which was run within a cubical volume of 1 $h^{-1}$ Gpc side. The resulting mock halo catalogs, generated through our approach, exhibit a high level of accuracy in terms of the one-, two- and three-point statistics. They reproduce the reference power-spectrum within better than 2 percent accuracy up to wavenumbers $k\sim0.8\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and provide accurate bispectra within the scales that are crucial for cosmological analysis. This effective bias approach provides a forward model appropriate for field-level cosmological inference and holds significant potential for facilitating cosmological analysis of galaxy redshift surveys, particularly in the context of projects such as DESI, EUCLID, and LSST., Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, published at JCAP

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed its five-month Survey Validation in May 2021. Spectra of stellar and extragalactic targets from Survey Validation constitute the first major data sample from the DESI survey. This paper describes the public release of those spectra, the catalogs of derived properties, and the intermediate data products. In total, the public release includes good-quality spectral information from 466,447 objects targeted as part of the Milky Way Survey, 428,758 as part of the Bright Galaxy Survey, 227,318 as part of the Luminous Red Galaxy sample, 437,664 as part of the Emission Line Galaxy sample, and 76,079 as part of the Quasar sample. In addition, the release includes spectral information from 137,148 objects that expand the scope beyond the primary samples as part of a series of secondary programs. Here, we describe the spectral data, data quality, data products, Large-Scale Structure science catalogs, access to the data, and references that provide relevant background to using these spectra., Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures, 17 tables, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) was designed to conduct a survey covering 14,000 deg$^2$ over five years to constrain the cosmic expansion history through precise measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO). The scientific program for DESI was evaluated during a five month Survey Validation (SV) campaign before beginning full operations. This program produced deep spectra of tens of thousands of objects from each of the stellar (MWS), bright galaxy (BGS), luminous red galaxy (LRG), emission line galaxy (ELG), and quasar target classes. These SV spectra were used to optimize redshift distributions, characterize exposure times, determine calibration procedures, and assess observational overheads for the five-year program. In this paper, we present the final target selection algorithms, redshift distributions, and projected cosmology constraints resulting from those studies. We also present a `One-Percent survey' conducted at the conclusion of Survey Validation covering 140 deg$^2$ using the final target selection algorithms with exposures of a depth typical of the main survey. The Survey Validation indicates that DESI will be able to complete the full 14,000 deg$^2$ program with spectroscopically-confirmed targets from the MWS, BGS, LRG, ELG, and quasar programs with total sample sizes of 7.2, 13.8, 7.46, 15.7, and 2.87 million, respectively. These samples will allow exploration of the Milky Way halo, clustering on all scales, and BAO measurements with a statistical precision of 0.28% over the redshift interval $z<1.1$, 0.39% over the redshift interval $1.1

Context: Analyzing the large-scale structure (LSS) with galaxy surveys demands accurate structure formation models. Such models should ideally be fast and have a clear theoretical framework to rapidly scan a variety of cosmological parameter spaces without requiring large training data sets. Aims: This study aims to extend Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT), including viscosity and vorticity, to reproduce the cosmic evolution from dark matter N-body calculations at the field level. Methods: We extend LPT to an Eulerian framework, which we dub eALPT. An ultraviolet regularisation through the spherical collapse model provided by Augmented LPT, turns out to be crucial at low redshifts. This iterative method enables modelling of the stress tensor and introduces vorticity. The eALPT model has two free parameters apart from the choice of cosmology, redshift snapshots, cosmic volume, and the number of particles. Results: We find that compared to N-body solvers, the cross-correlation of the dark matter distribution increases at $k = 1\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$ and $z = 0$ from $\sim$55% with the Zel'dovich approximation ($\sim$70% with ALPT), to $\sim$95% with three timesteps eALPT, and the power spectra show percentage accuracy up to $k \simeq 0.3\,h$ Mpc$^{-1}$., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures (accepted for publication at A&A)

We present the clustering of voids based on the quasar (QSO) sample of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 in configuration space. We define voids as overlapping empty circumspheres computed by Delaunay tetrahedra spanned by quartets of quasars, allowing for an estimate of the depth of underdense regions. To maximise the BAO signal-to-noise ratio, we consider only voids with radii larger than 36$h^{-1}$Mpc. Our analysis shows a negative BAO peak in the cross-correlation of QSOs and voids. The joint BAO measurement of the QSO auto-correlation and the corresponding cross-correlation with voids shows an improvement in 70$\%$ of the QSO mocks with an average improvement of $\sim5\%$. However, on the SDSS data, we find no improvement compatible with cosmic variance. For both mocks and data, adding voids does not introduce any bias. We find under the flat $\Lambda$CDM assumption, a distance joint measurement on data at the effective redshift $z_{\rm eff}=1.48$ of $D_V(z_{\rm eff})=26.297\pm0.547$. A forecast of a DESI-like survey with 1000 boxes with a similar effective volume recovers the same results as for light-cone mocks with an average of 4.8$\%$ improvement in 68$\%$ of the boxes., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has embarked on an ambitious five-year survey to explore the nature of dark energy with spectroscopy of 40 million galaxies and quasars. DESI will determine precise redshifts and employ the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation method to measure distances from the nearby universe to z > 3.5, as well as measure the growth of structure and probe potential modifications to general relativity. In this paper we describe the significant instrumentation we developed for the DESI survey. The new instrumentation includes a wide-field, 3.2-deg diameter prime-focus corrector that focuses the light onto 5020 robotic fiber positioners on the 0.812 m diameter, aspheric focal surface. The positioners and their fibers are divided among ten wedge-shaped petals. Each petal is connected to one of ten spectrographs via a contiguous, high-efficiency, nearly 50 m fiber cable bundle. The ten spectrographs each use a pair of dichroics to split the light into three channels that together record the light from 360 - 980 nm with a resolution of 2000 to 5000. We describe the science requirements, technical requirements on the instrumentation, and management of the project. DESI was installed at the 4-m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, and we also describe the facility upgrades to prepare for DESI and the installation and functional verification process. DESI has achieved all of its performance goals, and the DESI survey began in May 2021. Some performance highlights include RMS positioner accuracy better than 0.1", SNR per \sqrt{\AA} > 0.5 for a z > 2 quasar with flux 0.28e-17 erg/s/cm^2/A at 380 nm in 4000s, and median SNR = 7 of the [OII] doublet at 8e-17 erg/s/cm^2 in a 1000s exposure for emission line galaxies at z = 1.4 - 1.6. We conclude with highlights from the on-sky validation and commissioning of the instrument, key successes, and lessons learned. (abridged), Comment: 78 pages, 32 figures, submitted to AJ

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will soon start to scan thousands of square degrees of the northern extragalactic sky with a unique set of $56$ optical filters from a dedicated $2.55$m telescope, JST, at the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory. Before the arrival of the final instrument (a 1.2 Gpixels, 4.2deg$^2$ field-of-view camera), the JST was equipped with an interim camera (JPAS-Pathfinder), composed of one CCD with a 0.3deg$^2$ field-of-view and resolution of 0.23 arcsec pixel$^{-1}$. To demonstrate the scientific potential of J-PAS, with the JPAS-Pathfinder camera we carried out a survey on the AEGIS field (along the Extended Groth Strip), dubbed miniJPAS. We observed a total of $\sim 1$ deg$^2$, with the $56$ J-PAS filters, which include $54$ narrow band (NB, $\rm{FWHM} \sim 145$Angstrom) and two broader filters extending to the UV and the near-infrared, complemented by the $u,g,r,i$ SDSS broad band (BB) filters. In this paper we present the miniJPAS data set, the details of the catalogues and data access, and illustrate the scientific potential of our multi-band data. The data surpass the target depths originally planned for J-PAS, reaching $\rm{mag}_{\rm {AB}}$ between $\sim 22$ and $23.5$ for the NB filters and up to $24$ for the BB filters ($5\sigma$ in a $3$~arcsec aperture). The miniJPAS primary catalogue contains more than $64,000$ sources extracted in the $r$ detection band with forced photometry in all other bands. We estimate the catalogue to be complete up to $r=23.6$ for point-like sources and up to $r=22.7$ for extended sources. Photometric redshifts reach subpercent precision for all sources up to $r=22.5$, and a precision of $\sim 0.3$% for about half of the sample. (Abridged), Comment: The miniJPAS data and associated value added catalogues are publicly accessible via this url: http://archive.cefca.es/catalogues/minijpas-pdr201912

We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs ($R = \lambda/\Delta\lambda \sim 6500$), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph ($R \sim 20\,000$). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations., Comment: Part of the 4MOST issue of The Messenger, published in preparation of 4MOST Community Workshop, see http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2019/4MOST.html

Extremely metal-poor (XMP) galaxies are defined to have gas-phase metallicity smaller than a tenth of the solar value (12 + log[O/H] < 7.69). They are uncommon, chemically and possibly dynamically primitive, with physical conditions characteristic of earlier phases of the Universe. We search for new XMPs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in a work that complements Paper I. This time high electron temperature objects are selected; since metals are a main coolant of the gas, metal- poor objects contain high-temperature gas. Using the algorithm k-means, we classify 788677 spectra to select 1281 galaxies having particularly intense [OIII]4363 with respect to [OIII]5007, which is a proxy for high electron temperature. The metallicity of these candidates was computed using a hybrid technique consistent with the direct method, rendering 196 XMPs. A less restrictive noise constraint provides a larger set with 332 candidates. Both lists are provided in electronic format. The selected XMP sample have mean stellar mass around 10^8Msun, with dust-mass \sim 10^3Msun for typical star-forming regions. In agreement with previous findings, XMPs show a tendency to be tadpole-like or cometary. Their underlying stellar continuum corresponds to a fairly young stellar population (< 1Gyr), although young and aged stellar populations co-exists at the low-metallicity starbursts. About 10% of the XMPs shows large N/O. Based on their location in constrained cosmological numerical simulations, XMPs have a strong tendency to appear in voids and to avoid galaxy clusters. The puzzling 2%-solar low-metallicity threshold exhibited by XMPs remains., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full tables available upon request

The Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in the power spectrum of galaxies provides a standard ruler to measure the accelerated expansion of the Universe. To extract all available information about dark energy, it is necessary to measure a standard ruler in the local, z<0.2, universe where dark energy dominates most the energy density of the Universe. Though the volume available in the local universe is limited, it is just big enough to measure accurately the long 100 Mpc/h wave-mode of the BAO. Using cosmological N-body simulations and approximate methods based on Lagrangian perturbation theory, we construct a suite of a thousand light-cones to evaluate the precision at which one can measure the BAO standard ruler in the local universe. We find that using the most massive galaxies on the full sky (34,000 sq. deg.), i.e. a K(2MASS)<14 magnitude-limited sample, one can measure the BAO scale up to a precision of 4\% and 1.2\% using reconstruction). We also find that such a survey would help to detect the dynamics of dark energy.Therefore, we propose a 3-year long observational project, named the Low Redshift survey at Calar Alto (LoRCA), to observe spectroscopically about 200,000 galaxies in the northern sky to contribute to the construction of aforementioned galaxy sample. The suite of light-cones is made available to the public., Comment: 15 pages. Accepted in MNRAS. Please visit our website: http://lorca-survey.ft.uam.es/

By looking at the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (kSZ) in Planck nominal mission data, we present a significant detection of baryons participating in large-scale bulk flows around central galaxies (CGs) at redshift $z\approx 0.1$. We estimate the pairwise momentum of the kSZ temperature fluctuations at the positions of the CGC (Central Galaxy Catalogue) samples extracted from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR7) data. For the foreground-cleaned maps, we find $1.8$-$2.5\sigma$ detections of the kSZ signal, which are consistent with the kSZ evidence found in individual Planck raw frequency maps, although lower than found in the WMAP-9yr W band ($3.3\sigma$). We further reconstruct the peculiar velocity field from the CG density field, and compute for the first time the cross-correlation function between kSZ temperature fluctuations and estimates of CG radial peculiar velocities. This correlation function yields a $3.0$-$3.7$$\sigma$ detection of the peculiar motion of extended gas on Mpc scales, in flows correlated up to distances of 80-100 $h^{-1}$ Mpc. Both the pairwise momentum estimates and kSZ temperature-velocity field correlation find evidence for kSZ signatures out to apertures of 8 arcmin and beyond, corresponding to a physical radius of $> 1$ Mpc, more than twice the mean virial radius of halos. This is consistent with the predictions from hydro simulations that most of the baryons are outside the virialized halos. We fit a simple model, in which the temperature-velocity cross-correlation is proportional to the signal seen in a semi-analytic model built upon N-body simulations, and interpret the proportionality constant as an "effective" optical depth to Thomson scattering. We find $\tau_T=(1.4\pm0.5)\times 10^{-4}$; the simplest interpretation of this measurement is that much of the gas is in a diffuse phase, which contributes little signal to X-ray or thermal SZ observations., Comment: Current version matches accepted version in A&A

We have analyzed bibliographical observational data and theoretical predictions, in order to probe the environment in which extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies (XMPs) reside. We have assessed the HI component and its relation to the optical galaxy, the cosmic web type (voids, sheets, filaments and knots), the overdensity parameter and analyzed the nearest galaxy neighbours. The aim is to understand the role of interactions and cosmological accretion flows in the XMP observational properties, particularly the triggering and feeding of the star formation. We find that XMPs behave similarly to Blue Compact Dwarfs; they preferably populate low-density environments in the local Universe: ~60% occupy underdense regions, and ~75% reside in voids and sheets. This is more extreme than the distribution of irregular galaxies, and in contrast to those regions preferred by elliptical galaxies (knots and filaments). We further find results consistent with previous observations; while the environment does determine the fraction of a certain galaxy type, it does not determine the overall observational properties. With the exception of five documented cases (four sources with companions and one recent merger), XMPs do not generally show signatures of major mergers and interactions; we find only one XMP with a companion galaxy within a distance of 100 kpc, and the HI gas in XMPs is typically well-behaved, demonstrating asymmetries mostly in the outskirts. We conclude that metal-poor accretion flows may be driving the XMP evolution. Such cosmological accretion could explain all the major XMP observational properties: isolation, lack of interaction/merger signatures, asymmetric optical morphology, large amounts of unsettled, metal-poor HI gas, metallicity inhomogeneities, and large specific star formation.

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerated Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) is a narrow band, very wide field Cosmological Survey to be carried out from the Javalambre Observatory in Spain with a purpose-built, dedicated 2.5m telescope and a 4.7 sq.deg. camera with 1.2Gpix. Starting in late 2015, J-PAS will observe 8500sq.deg. of Northern Sky and measure $0.003(1+z)$ photo-z for $9\times10^7$ LRG and ELG galaxies plus several million QSOs, sampling an effective volume of $\sim 14$ Gpc$^3$ up to $z=1.3$ and becoming the first radial BAO experiment to reach Stage IV. J-PAS will detect $7\times 10^5$ galaxy clusters and groups, setting constrains on Dark Energy which rival those obtained from its BAO measurements. Thanks to the superb characteristics of the site (seeing ~0.7 arcsec), J-PAS is expected to obtain a deep, sub-arcsec image of the Northern sky, which combined with its unique photo-z precision will produce one of the most powerful cosmological lensing surveys before the arrival of Euclid. J-PAS unprecedented spectral time domain information will enable a self-contained SN survey that, without the need for external spectroscopic follow-up, will detect, classify and measure $\sigma_z\sim 0.5\%$ redshifts for $\sim 4000$ SNeIa and $\sim 900$ core-collapse SNe. The key to the J-PAS potential is its innovative approach: a contiguous system of 54 filters with $145\AA$ width, placed $100\AA$ apart over a multi-degree FoV is a powerful "redshift machine", with the survey speed of a 4000 multiplexing low resolution spectrograph, but many times cheaper and much faster to build. The J-PAS camera is equivalent to a 4.7 sq.deg. "IFU" and it will produce a time-resolved, 3D image of the Northern Sky with a very wide range of Astrophysical applications in Galaxy Evolution, the nearby Universe and the study of resolved stellar populations., Comment: 215 pages, 70 figures. J-PAS "Red Book", containing a description of the technical aspects of the Survey and its main scientific goals

The first statistically significant detection of the cosmic \gamma-ray horizon (CGRH) that is independent of any extragalactic background light (EBL) model is presented. The CGRH is a fundamental quantity in cosmology. It gives an estimate of the opacity of the Universe to very high energy (VHE) \gamma-ray photons due to photon-photon pair production with the EBL. The only estimations of the CGRH to date are predictions from EBL models and lower limits from \gamma-ray observations of cosmological blazars and \gamma-ray bursts. Here, we present homogeneous synchrotron/synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) models of the spectral energy distributions of 15 blazars based on (almost) simultaneous observations from radio up to the highest energy \gamma-rays taken with the Fermi satellite. These synchrotron/SSC models predict the unattenuated VHE fluxes, which are compared with the observations by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. This comparison provides an estimate of the optical depth of the EBL, which allows a derivation of the CGRH through a maximum likelihood analysis that is EBL-model independent. We find that the observed CGRH is compatible with the current knowledge of the EBL., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure, 2 tables; accepted by ApJ on April 22, 2013

We compute the cross-correlation between the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium and maps of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature anisotropies using a log-normal probability density function to describe the weakly non-linear matter density field. We search for this contribution in the data measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. We use a template of projected matter density reconstructed from the Two-Micron All-Sky Redshift Survey as a tracer of the electron distribution. The spatial distribution of filaments is modeled using the recently developed Augmented Lagrangian Perturbation Theory. On the scales considered here, the reconstructed density field is very well described by the assumed log-normal distribution function. We predict that the cross-correlation will have an amplitude of $0.03-0.3\mu$K. The measured value is close to $1.5\mu$K, compatible with random alignments between structure in the template and in the temperature anisotropy data. Using the W1 Differencing Assembly to remove this systematic gives a residual correlation dominated by Galactic foregrounds. Planck could detect the Warm-Hot Medium if it is well traced by the density field reconstructed from galaxy surveys. The 217GHz channel will allow to eliminate spurious contributions and its large frequency coverage can show the sign change from the Rayleigh-Jeans to the Wien part of the spectrum, characteristic of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect., Comment: ApJ, in press. Matches the published version

We propose a new method to linearise cosmological mass density fields using higher order Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT). We demonstrate that a given density field can be expressed as the sum of a linear and a nonlinear component which are tightly coupled to each other by the tidal field tensor within the LPT framework. The linear component corresponds to the initial density field in Eulerian coordinates, and its mean relation with the total field can be approximated by a logarithm (giving theoretical support to recent attempts to find such component). We also propose to use a combination of the linearisation method and the continuity equation to find the mapping between Eulerian and Lagrangian coordinates. In addition, we note that this method opens the possibility of use directly higher order LPT on nonlinear fields. We test our linearization scheme by applying it to the z~0.5 density field from an N-body simulation. We find that the linearised version of the full density field can be successfully recovered on >~5 h^{-1}Mpc, reducing the skewness and kurtosis of the distribution by about one and two orders of magnitude, respectively. This component can also be successfully traced back in time, converging towards the initial unevolved density field at z~100. We anticipate a number of applications of our results, from predicting velocity fields to estimates of the initial conditions of the universe, passing by improved constraints on cosmological parameters derived from galaxy clustering via reconstruction methods., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

In this work we investigate the multivariate statistical description of the matter distribution in the nonlinear regime. We introduce the multivariate Edgeworth expansion of the lognormal distribution to model the cosmological matter field. Such a technique could be useful to generate and reconstruct three-dimensional nonlinear cosmological density fields with the information of higher order correlation functions. We explicitly calculate the expansion up to third order in perturbation theory making use of the multivariate Hermite polynomials up to sixth order. The probability distribution function for the matter field includes at this level the two-point, the three-point and the four-point correlation functions. We use the hierarchical model to formulate the higher order correlation functions based on combinations of the two-point correlation function. This permits us to find compact expressions for the skewness and kurtosis terms of the expanded lognormal field which can be efficiently computed. The method is, however, flexible to incorporate arbitrary higher order correlation functions which have analytical expressions. The applications of such a technique can be especially useful to perform weak-lensing or neutral hydrogen 21 cm line tomography, as well as to directly use the galaxy distribution or the Lyman-alpha forest to study structure formation., Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures; accepted in MNRAS 2011 August 22, in original form 2010 December 14 published, Publication Date: 03/2012

In this work we present the first non-linear, non-Gaussian full Bayesian large scale structure analysis of the cosmic density field conducted so far. The density inference is based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7, which covers the northern galactic cap. We employ a novel Bayesian sampling algorithm, which enables us to explore the extremely high dimensional non-Gaussian, non-linear log-normal Poissonian posterior of the three dimensional density field conditional on the data. These techniques are efficiently implemented in the HADES computer algorithm and permit the precise recovery of poorly sampled objects and non-linear density fields. The non-linear density inference is performed on a 750 Mpc cube with roughly 3 Mpc grid-resolution, while accounting for systematic effects, introduced by survey geometry and selection function of the SDSS, and the correct treatment of a Poissonian shot noise contribution. Our high resolution results represent remarkably well the cosmic web structure of the cosmic density field. Filaments, voids and clusters are clearly visible. Further, we also conduct a dynamical web classification, and estimated the web type posterior distribution conditional on the SDSS data., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures

We describe an exact, flexible, and computationally efficient algorithm for a joint estimation of the large-scale structure and its power-spectrum, building on a Gibbs sampling framework and present its implementation ARES (Algorithm for REconstruction and Sampling). ARES is designed to reconstruct the 3D power-spectrum together with the underlying dark matter density field in a Bayesian framework, under the reasonable assumption that the long wavelength Fourier components are Gaussian distributed. As a result ARES does not only provide a single estimate but samples from the joint posterior of the power-spectrum and density field conditional on a set of observations. This enables us to calculate any desired statistical summary, in particular we are able to provide joint uncertainty estimates. We apply our method to mock catalogs, with highly structured observational masks and selection functions, in order to demonstrate its ability to reconstruct the power-spectrum from real data sets, while fully accounting for any mask induced mode coupling., Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures

In this work we present a new and efficient Bayesian method for nonlinear three dimensional large scale structure inference. We employ a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) sampler to obtain samples from a multivariate highly non-Gaussian lognormal Poissonian density posterior given a set of observations. The HMC allows us to take into account the nonlinear relations between the observations and the underlying density field which we seek to recover. As the HMC provides a sampled representation of the density posterior any desired statistical summary, such as the mean, mode or variance, can be calculated from the set of samples. Further, it permits us to seamlessly propagate non-Gaussian uncertainty information to any final quantity inferred from the set of samples. The developed method is extensively tested in a variety of test scenarios, taking into account a highly structured survey geometry and selection effects. Tests with a mock galaxy catalog based on the millennium run show that the method is able to recover the filamentary structure of the nonlinear density field. The results further demonstrate the feasibility of non-Gaussian sampling in high dimensional spaces, as required for precision nonlinear large scale structure inference. The HMC is a flexible and efficient method, which permits for simple extension and incorporation of additional observational constraints. Thus, the method presented here provides an efficient and flexible basis for future high precision large scale structure inference., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures

We address the problem of discretizing continuous cosmological signals such as a galaxy distribution for further processing with Fast Fourier techniques. Discretizing, in particular representing continuous signals by discrete sets of sample points, introduces an enormous loss of information, which has to be understood in detail if one wants to make inference from the discretely sampled signal towards actual natural physical quantities. We therefore review the mathematics of discretizing signals and the application of Fast Fourier Transforms to demonstrate how the interpretation of the processed data can be affected by these procedures. It is also a well known fact that any practical sampling method introduces sampling artifacts and false information in the form of aliasing. These sampling artifacts, especially aliasing, make further processing of the sampled signal difficult. For this reason we introduce a fast and efficient supersampling method, frequently applied in 3D computer graphics, to cosmological applications such as matter power spectrum estimation. This method consists of two filtering steps which allow for a much better approximation of the ideal sampling procedure, while at the same time being computationally very efficient.Thus, it provides discretely sampled signals which are greately cleaned from aliasing contributions., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures

We examine nucleosynthesis in the electron capture supernovae of progenitor AGB stars with an O-Ne-Mg core (with the initial stellar mass of 8.8 M_\odot). Thermodynamic trajectories for the first 810 ms after core bounce are taken from a recent state-of-the-art hydrodynamic simulation. The presented nucleosynthesis results are characterized by a number of distinct features that are not shared with those of other supernovae from the collapse of stars with iron core (with initial stellar masses of more than 10 M_\odot). First is the small amount of 56Ni (= 0.002-0.004 M_\odot) in the ejecta, which can be an explanation for observed properties of faint supernovae such as SNe 2008S and 1997D. In addition, the large Ni/Fe ratio is in reasonable agreement with the spectroscopic result of the Crab nebula (the relic of SN 1054). Second is the large production of 64Zn, 70Ge, light p-nuclei (74Se, 78Kr, 84Sr, and 92Mo), and in particular, 90Zr, which originates from the low Y_e (= 0.46-0.49, the number of electrons per nucleon) ejecta. We find, however, that only a 1-2% increase of the minimum Y_e moderates the overproduction of 90Zr. In contrast, the production of 64Zn is fairly robust against a small variation of Y_e. This provides the upper limit of the occurrence of this type of events to be about 30% of all core-collapse supernovae., Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We present a publicly available code called Hammurabi for generating mock polarized observations of Galactic synchrotron emission for telescopes like LOFAR, SKA, Planck and WMAP, based on model inputs for the Galactic magnetic field (GMF), the cosmic-ray density distribution and the thermal electron density. We also present mock UHECR deflection measure (UDM) maps based on model inputs for the GMF. In future, when UHECR sources are identified, this will allow us to define UDM as a GMF probe in a similar way as polarized radio sources permit us to define rotation measures. To demonstrate the code's abilities mock observations are compared to real data as a means to constrain the input parameters of our simulations with a focus on large-scale magnetic field properties. As expected, attempts at trying to model the synchrotron, UHECR deflection and RM input parameters, show that any additional observational data set greatly increases the constraints on the models. The hammurabi code addresses this by allowing to perform simulations of several different data sets simultaneously, providing the means for a more reliable constraint of the magnetized inter-stellar-medium., Comment: Submitted to A&A (Numerical methods and codes section)

It has been recently proposed that the shocked surface layers of exploding O-Ne-Mg cores provide the conditions for r-process nucleosynthesis, because their rapid expansion and high entropies enable heavy r-process isotopes to form even in an environment with very low initial neutron excess of the matter. We show here that the most sophisticated available hydrodynamic simulations (in spherical and axial symmetry) do not support this new r-process scenario because they fail to provide the necessary conditions of temperature, entropy, and expansion timescale by significant factors. This suggests that, either the formation of r-process elements works differently than suggested by Ning et al. (2007, NQM07), or that some essential core properties with influence on the explosion dynamics might be different from those predicted by Nomoto's progenitor model., Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures; accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics; significantly extended to account for referee's suggestions and questions

The neutrino-heating mechanism remains a viable possibility for the cause of the explosion in a wide mass range of supernova progenitors. This is demonstrated by recent two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations with detailed, energy-dependent neutrino transport. Neutrino-driven explosions were not only found for stars in the range of 8-10 solar masses with ONeMg cores and in case of the iron core collapse of a progenitor with 11 solar masses, but also for a ``typical'' progenitor model of 15 solar masses. For such more massive stars, however, the explosion occurs significantly later than so far thought, and is crucially supported by large-amplitude bipolar oscillations due to the nonradial standing accretion shock instability (SASI), whose low (dipole and quadrupole) modes can develop large growth rates in conditions where convective instability is damped or even suppressed. The dominance of low-mode deformation at the time of shock revival has been recognized as a possible explanation of large pulsar kicks and of large-scale mixing phenomena observed in supernovae like SN 1987A., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; review proceeding for "Supernova 1987A: 20 Years After: Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursters" AIP, New York, eds. S. Immler, K.W. Weiler, and R. McCray

We address the inverse problem of cosmic large-scale structure reconstruction from a Bayesian perspective. For a linear data model, a number of known and novel reconstruction schemes, which differ in terms of the underlying signal prior, data likelihood, and numerical inverse extra-regularization schemes are derived and classified. The Bayesian methodology presented in this paper tries to unify and extend the following methods: Wiener-filtering, Tikhonov regularization, Ridge regression, Maximum Entropy, and inverse regularization techniques. The inverse techniques considered here are the asymptotic regularization, the Jacobi, Steepest Descent, Newton-Raphson, Landweber-Fridman, and both linear and non-linear Krylov methods based on Fletcher-Reeves, Polak-Ribiere, and Hestenes-Stiefel Conjugate Gradients. The structures of the up-to-date highest-performing algorithms are presented, based on an operator scheme, which permits one to exploit the power of fast Fourier transforms. Using such an implementation of the generalized Wiener-filter in the novel ARGO-software package, the different numerical schemes are benchmarked with 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional problems including structured white and Poissonian noise, data windowing and blurring effects. A novel numerical Krylov scheme is shown to be superior in terms of performance and fidelity. These fast inverse methods ultimately will enable the application of sampling techniques to explore complex joint posterior distributions. We outline how the space of the dark-matter density field, the peculiar velocity field, and the power spectrum can jointly be investigated by a Gibbs-sampling process. Such a method can be applied for the redshift distortions correction of the observed galaxies and for time-reversal reconstructions of the initial density field., Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures

We present results of simulations of stellar collapse and explosions in spherical symmetry for progenitor stars in the 8-10 solar mass range with an O-Ne-Mg core. The simulations were continued until nearly one second after core bounce and were performed with the Prometheus/Vertex code with a variable Eddington factor solver for the neutrino transport, including a state-of-the-art treatment of neutrino-matter interactions. Particular effort was made to implement nuclear burning and electron capture rates with sufficient accuracy to ensure a smooth continuation, without transients, from the progenitor evolution to core collapse. Using two different nuclear equations of state (EoSs), a soft version of the Lattimer & Swesty EoS and the significantly stiffer Wolff & Hillebrandt EoS, we found no prompt explosions, but instead delayed explosions, powered by neutrino heating and the neutrino-driven baryonic wind which sets in about 200 ms after bounce. The models eject little nickel (< 0.015 solar masses), explode with an energy of about or slightly more than 10**50 erg, and leave behind neutron stars (NSs) with a baryonic mass near 1.36 solar masses. Different from previous models of such explosions, the ejecta during the first second have a proton-to-baryon ratio of Ye > 0.46, which suggests a chemical composition that is not in conflict with galactic abundances. No low-entropy matter with Ye << 0.5 is ejected. This excludes such explosions as sites of a low-entropy r-process. The low explosion energy and nucleosynthetic implications are compatible with the observed properties of the Crab supernova, and the small nickel mass supports the possibility that our models explain some subluminous Type II-P supernovae., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; referee's comments included; Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted