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Many nucleosynthetic channels create the elements, but two-parameter models characterized by $\alpha$ and Fe nonetheless predict stellar abundances in the Galactic disk to accuracies of 0.02 to 0.05 dex for most measured elements, near the level of current abundance uncertainties. It is difficult to make individual measurements more precise than this to investigate lower-amplitude nucleosynthetic effects, but population studies of mean abundance patterns can reveal more subtle abundance differences. Here we look at the detailed abundances for 67315 stars from APOGEE DR17, but in the form of abundance residuals away from a best-fit two-parameter, data-driven nucleosynthetic model. We find that these residuals show complex structures with respect to age, guiding radius, and vertical action that are not random and are also not strongly correlated with sources of systematic error such as surface gravity, effective temperature, and radial velocity. The residual patterns, especially in Na, C+N, Ni, Mn, and Ce, trace kinematic structures in the Milky Way, such as the inner disk, thick disk, and flared outer disk. A principal component analysis suggests that most of the observed structure is low-dimensional and can be explained by a few eigenvectors. We find that some, but not all, of the effects in the low-$\alpha$ disk can be explained by dilution with fresh gas, so that abundance ratios resemble those of stars with higher metallicity. The patterns and maps we provide could be combined with accurate forward models of nucleosynthesis, star formation, and gas infall to provide a more detailed picture of star and element formation in different Milky Way components.

Metallicities of both gas and stars decline toward large radii in spiral galaxies, a trend known as the radial metallicity gradient. We quantify the evolution of the metallicity gradient in the Milky Way as traced by APOGEE red giants with age estimates from machine learning algorithms. Stars up to ages of $\sim$9 Gyr follow a similar relation between metallicity and Galactocentric radius. This constancy challenges current models of Galactic chemical evolution, which typically predict lower metallicities for older stellar populations. Our results favor an equilibrium scenario, in which the gas-phase gradient reaches a nearly constant normalization early in the disk lifetime. Using a fiducial choice of parameters, we demonstrate that one possible origin of this behavior is an outflow that more readily ejects gas from the interstellar medium with increasing Galactocentric radius. A direct effect of the outflow is that baryons do not remain in the interstellar medium for long, which causes the ratio of star formation to accretion, $\dot{\Sigma}_\star / \dot{\Sigma}_\text{in}$, to quickly become constant. This ratio is closely related to the local equilibrium metallicity, since its numerator and denominator set the rates of metal production by stars and hydrogen gained through accretion, respectively. Building in a merger event results in a perturbation that evolves back toward the equilibrium state on $\sim$Gyr timescales. Under the equilibrium scenario, the radial metallicity gradient is not a consequence of the inside-out growth of the disk but instead reflects a trend of declining $\dot{\Sigma}_\star / \dot{\Sigma}_\text{in}$ with increasing Galactocentric radius., Comment: submitted to ApJ, comments welcome

Galaxy clusters identified in optical imaging surveys suffer from projection effects: physically unassociated galaxies along a cluster's line of sight can be counted as its members and boost the observed richness (the number of cluster members). To model the impact projection on cluster cosmology analyses, we apply a halo occupation distribution model to N-body simulations to simulate the red galaxies contributing to cluster members, and we use the number of galaxies in a cylinder along the line-of-sight (counts-in-cylinders) to model the impact of projection on cluster richness. We compare three projection models: uniform, quadratic, and Gaussian, and we convert between them by matching their effective cylinder volumes. We validate our mock catalogs using SDSS redMaPPer data vectors, including cluster abundance vs. richness, stacked lensing signal, spectroscopic redshift distribution of member galaxies, and richness re-measured on a redshift grid. We find the former two are insensitive to the projection model, while the latter two favor a quadratic projection model with a width of 180 Mpc/h (equivalent to the volume of a uniform model with a width of 100 Mpc/h and a Gaussian model with a width of 110 Mpc/h, or a Gaussian redshift error of 0.04). Our framework provides an efficient and flexible way to model optical cluster data vectors, paving the way for a simulation-based joint analysis for clusters, galaxies, and shear., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures

Spectroscopic studies of elliptical galaxies show that their stellar population ages, mean metallicity, and $\alpha$-enhancement traced by [Mg/Fe] all increase with galaxy stellar mass or velocity dispersion. We use one-zone galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models with a flexible star formation history (SFH) to model the age, [Mg/H], and [Mg/Fe] inferred from simple stellar population (SSP) fits to observed ellipticals at $z \sim 0$ and $z \sim 0.7$. We show that an SSP fit to the spectrum computed from a full GCE model gives ages and abundances close to the light-weighted, logarithmically averaged values of the composite stellar population, , <[Mg/H]>, and <[Mg/Fe]>. With supernova Mg and Fe yields fixed to values motivated by Milky Way stellar populations, we find that predicted <[Mg/H]>- and <[Mg/Fe]>- relations are surprisingly insensitive to SFH parameters: older galaxies have higher <[Mg/Fe]>, but the detailed form of the SFH has limited impact. The star formation efficiency and outflow efficiency affect the early and late evolution of <[Mg/H]>, respectively; explaining observed trends requires higher star formation efficiency and lower outflows in more massive galaxies. With core collapse supernova yields calibrated to the plateau [Mg/Fe]$_{\rm cc} \approx0.45$ observed in many Milky Way studies, our models underpredict the observed <[Mg/Fe]> ratios of ellipticals by 0.05-0.1 dex. Increasing the core collapse yield ratio to [Mg/Fe]$_{\rm cc} = 0.55$ improves the agreement, though the models still lie below the data. We discuss potential resolutions of this discrepancy, including the possibility that many ellipticals terminate their star formation with a self-enriching, terminating burst that reduces the light-weighted age and boosts <[Mg/Fe]>.

We examine the galactic chemical evolution (GCE) of $^4$He in one-zone and multi-zone models, with particular attention to theoretical predictions and empirical constraints on IMF-averaged yields. Published models of massive star winds and core collapse supernovae span a factor of 2 -- 3 in the IMF-averaged $^4$He yield, $y\mathrm{_{He}^{CC}}$. Published models of intermediate mass, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars show better agreement on the IMF-averaged yield, $y\mathrm{_{He}^{AGB}}$, and they predict that more than half of this yield comes from stars with $M=4-8 M_\odot$, making AGB $^4$He enrichment rapid compared to Fe enrichment from Type Ia supernovae. Although our GCE models include many potentially complicating effects, the short enrichment time delay and mild metallicity dependence of the predicted yields makes the results quite simple: across a wide range of metallicity and age, the non-primordial $^4$He mass fraction $\Delta Y = Y-Y_{\mathrm{P}}$ is proportional to the abundance of promptly produced $\alpha$-elements, like oxygen, with $\Delta Y/Z_{\mathrm{O}} \approx (y\mathrm{_{He}^{CC}}+y\mathrm{_{He}^{AGB}})/y\mathrm{_{O}^{CC}}$. Reproducing solar abundances with our fiducial choice of the oxygen yield $y\mathrm{_{O}^{CC}}=0.0071$ implies $y\mathrm{_{He}^{CC}}+y\mathrm{_{He}^{AGB}} \approx 0.022$, i.e., $0.022M_\odot$ of net $^4$He production per solar mass of star formation. Our GCE models with this yield normalization are consistent with most available observations, though the implied $y\mathrm{_{He}^{CC}}$ is low compared to most of the published massive star models. More precise measurements of $\Delta Y$ in stars and gas across a wide range of metallicity and [$\alpha$/Fe] ratio could test our models more stringently, either confirming the simple picture suggested by our calculations or revealing surprises in the evolution of the second most abundant element., Comment: 19 Pages, 18 Figures, submitted to MNRAS

Stellar abundance measurements are subject to systematic errors that induce extra scatter and artificial correlations in elemental abundance patterns. We derive empirical calibration offsets to remove systematic trends with surface gravity $\log(g)$ in 17 elemental abundances of 288,789 evolved stars from the SDSS APOGEE survey. We fit these corrected abundances as the sum of a prompt process tracing core-collapse supernovae and a delayed process tracing Type Ia supernovae, thus recasting each star's measurements into the amplitudes $A_{\text{cc}}$ and $A_{\text{Ia}}$ and the element-by-element residuals from this two-parameter fit. As a first application of this catalog, which is $8\times$ larger than that of previous analyses that used a restricted $\log(g)$ range, we examine the median residual abundances of 14 open clusters, nine globular clusters, and four dwarf satellite galaxies. Relative to field Milky Way disk stars, the open clusters younger than 2 Gyr show $\approx 0.1-0.2$ dex enhancements of the neutron-capture element Ce, and the two clusters younger than 0.5 Gyr also show elevated levels of C+N, Na, S, and Cu. Globular clusters show elevated median abundances of C+N, Na, Al, and Ce, and correlated abundance residuals that follow previously known trends. The four dwarf satellites show similar residual abundance patterns despite their different star formation histories, with $\approx 0.2-0.3$ dex depletions in C+N, Na, and Al and $\approx 0.1$ dex depletions in Ni, V, Mn, and Co. We provide our catalog of corrected APOGEE abundances, two-process amplitudes, and residual abundances, which will be valuable for future studies of abundance patterns in different stellar populations and of additional enrichment processes that affect galactic chemical evolution., Comment: Updated to ApJ accepted version. 35 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables. Catalog available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10659205

The surface [C/N] ratios of evolved giants are strongly affected by the first dredge-up (FDU) of nuclear-processed material from stellar cores. C and N also have distinct nucleosynthetic origins and serve as diagnostics of mixing and mass loss. We use subgiants to find strong trends in the birth [C/N] with [Fe/H], which differ between the low-$\alpha$ and high-$\alpha$ populations. We demonstrate that these birth trends have a strong impact on the surface abundances after the FDU. This effect is neglected in current stellar models, which use solar-scaled C and N. We map out the FDU as a function of evolutionary state, mass, and composition using a large and precisely measured asteroseismic dataset in first-ascent red giant branch (RGB) and core He-burning, or red clump (RC), stars. We describe the domains where [C/N] is a useful mass diagnostic and find that the RC complements the RGB and extends the range of validity to higher mass. We find evidence for extra mixing on the RGB below [Fe/H]= -0.4, matching literature results, for high-$\alpha$ giants, but there is no clear evidence of mixing in the low-$\alpha$ giants. The predicted signal of mass loss is weak and difficult to detect in our sample. We discuss implications for stellar physics and stellar population applications., Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures

Upcoming cosmic shear analyses will precisely measure the cosmic matter distribution at low redshifts. At these redshifts, the matter distribution is affected by galaxy formation physics, primarily baryonic feedback from star formation and active galactic nuclei. Employing measurements from the Magneticum and IllustrisTNG simulations and a dark matter + baryon (DMB) halo model, this paper demonstrates that Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect observations of galaxy clusters, whose masses have been calibrated using weak gravitational lensing, can constrain the baryonic impact on cosmic shear with statistical and systematic errors subdominant to the measurement errors of DES-Y3 and LSST-Y1. We further dissect the contributions from different scales and halos with different masses to cosmic shear, highlighting the dominant role of SZ clusters at scales critical for cosmic shear analyses. These findings suggest a promising avenue for future joint analyses of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and lensing surveys., Comment: To be submitted to JCAP. Comments are welcome!

Galaxy clusters identified with optical imaging tend to suffer from projection effects, which impact richness (the number of member galaxies in a cluster) and lensing coherently. Physically unassociated galaxies can be mistaken as cluster members due to the significant uncertainties in their line-of-sight distances, thereby changing the observed cluster richness; at the same time, projection effects alter the weak gravitational lensing signals of clusters, leading to a correlated scatter between richness and lensing at a given halo mass. As a result, the lensing signals for optically selected clusters tend to be biased high. This optical selection bias problem of cluster lensing is one of the key challenges in cluster cosmology. Fortunately, recently available multiwavelength observations of clusters provide a solution. We analyze a simulated data set mimicking the observed lensing of clusters identified by both optical photometry and gas properties, aiming to constrain this selection bias. Assuming a redMaPPer sample from the Dark Energy Survey with South Pole Telescope Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect observations, we find that an overlapping survey of 1300 square deg, 0.2 < z < 0.65, can constrain the average lensing bias to an accuracy of 5 percent. This provides an exciting opportunity for directly constraining optical selection bias from observations. We further show that our approach can remove the optical selection bias from the lensing signal, paving the way for future optical cluster cosmology analyses., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to PRD

We examine the stellar [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] distribution of $\simeq1000$ present-day galaxies in a high-resolution EAGLE simulation. A slight majority of galaxies exhibit the canonical distribution, characterised by a sequence of low-metallicity stars with high [$\alpha$/Fe] that transitions at a "knee" to a sequence of declining [$\alpha$/Fe] with increasing metallicity. This population yields a knee metallicity - galaxy-mass relation similar to that observed in Local Group galaxies, both in slope and scatter. However, many simulated galaxies lack a knee or exhibit more complicated distributions. Knees are found only in galaxies with star formation histories (SFHs) featuring a sustained decline from an early peak ($t\simeq7~{\rm Gyr}$), which enables enrichment by Type Ia supernovae to dominate that due to Type II supernovae (SN II), reducing [$\alpha$/Fe] in the interstellar gas. The simulation thus indicates that, contrary to the common interpretation implied by analytic galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models, knee formation is not a consequence of the onset of enrichment by SN Ia. We use the SFH of a simulated galaxy exhibiting a knee as input to the VICE GCE model, finding it yields an $\alpha$-rich plateau enriched only by SN II, but the plateau comprises little stellar mass and the galaxy forms few metal-poor ([Fe/H]$\lesssim - 1$) stars. This follows from the short, constant gas consumption timescale typically assumed by GCEs, which implies the presence of a readily-enriched, low-mass gas reservoir. When an initially longer, evolving consumption timescale is adopted, VICE reproduces the simulated galaxy's track through the [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane and its metallicity distribution function., Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, submitted to MNRAS

The recent Dark Energy Survey Year 1 (DES-Y1) analysis of galaxy cluster abundances and weak lensing produced $\Omega_{\rm m}$ and $\sigma_8$ constraints in 5.6$\sigma$ tension with Planck. It is suggested in that work that this tension is driven by unmodelled systematics in optical cluster selection. We present a novel simulation-based forward modeling framework that explicitly incorporates cluster selection into its model predictions. Applying this framework to the DES-Y1 data we find consistency with Planck, resolving the tension found in the DES-Y1 analysis. An extension of this approach to the final DES data set will produce robust constraints on $\Lambda$CDM parameters and correspondingly strong tests of cosmological models., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Supplemental material with 2 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letters

The scale of alpha-element yields is difficult to predict from theory because of uncertainties in massive star evolution, supernova physics, and black hole formation, and it is difficult to constrain empirically because the impact of higher yields can be compensated by greater metal loss in galactic winds. We use a recent measurement of the mean iron yield of core collapse supernovae (CCSN) by Rodriguez et al. (RMN23), $\bar{y}_{\rm Fe}^{\rm cc} =0.058 \pm 0.007 M_\odot$, to infer the scale of alpha-element yields by assuming that the plateau of [alpha/Fe] abundance ratios observed in low metallicity stars represents the yield ratio of CCSN. For a Kroupa IMF and a plateau at [alpha/Fe]=0.45, we find that the population-averaged yields of O and Mg per unit mass of star formation are about equal to the mass fractions of these elements in the sun. The inferred O and Fe yields agree with predictions of the Sukhbold et al. (2016) CCSN models assuming their Z9.6+N20 neutrino-driven engine, a scenario in which many progenitors with $M<40M_\odot$ implode to black holes rather than exploding. The yields are lower than assumed in some models of galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and the galaxy mass-metallicity relation, reducing the level of outflows needed to match observed abundances. For straightforward assumptions, we find that one-zone GCE models with mass-loading factor $\eta\approx 0.6$ evolve to solar metallicity at late times. By requiring that models reach [alpha/Fe]=0 at late times, and assuming a mean Fe yield of $0.7M_\odot$ per Type Ia supernova, we infer a Hubble-time integrated SNIa rate of $1.1\times 10^{-3} M_\odot^{-1}$, compatible with estimates from supernova surveys. The RMN23 measurement provides one of the few empirical anchors for the absolute scale of nucleosynthetic yields, with wide-ranging implications for stellar and galactic astrophysics., Comment: 19 pp., 9 figs, submitted to AAS journals

We present new maps of the Milky Way disk showing the distribution of metallicity ([Fe/H]), $\alpha$-element abundances ([Mg/Fe]), and stellar age, using a sample of 66,496 red giant stars from the final data release (DR17) of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey. We measure radial and vertical gradients, quantify the distribution functions for age and metallicity, and explore chemical clock relations across the Milky Way for the low-$\alpha$ disk, high-$\alpha$ disk, and total population independently. The low-$\alpha$ disk exhibits a negative radial metallicity gradient of $-0.06 \pm 0.001$ dex kpc$^{-1}$, which flattens with distance from the midplane. The high-$\alpha$ disk shows a flat radial gradient in metallicity and age across nearly all locations of the disk. The age and metallicity distribution functions shift from negatively skewed in the inner Galaxy to positively skewed at large radius. Significant bimodality in the [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] plane and in the [Mg/Fe]-age relation persist across the entire disk. The age estimates have typical uncertainties of $\sim0.15$ in $\log$(age) and may be subject to additional systematic errors, which impose limitations on conclusions drawn from this sample. Nevertheless, these results act as critical constraints on galactic evolution models, constraining which physical processes played a dominant role in the formation of the Milky Way disk. We discuss how radial migration predicts many of the observed trends near the solar neighborhood and in the outer disk, but an additional more dramatic evolution history, such as the multi-infall model or a merger event, is needed to explain the chemical and age bimodality elsewhere in the Galaxy., Comment: 41 pages, 32 figures, accepted to ApJ

The element abundance pattern found in Milky Way disk stars is close to two-dimensional, dominated by production from one prompt process and one delayed process. This simplicity is remarkable, since the elements are produced by a multitude of nucleosynthesis mechanisms operating in stars with a wide range of progenitor masses. We fit the abundances of 14 elements for 48,659 red-giant stars from APOGEE DR17 using a flexible, data-driven K-process model -- dubbed KPM. In our fiducial model, with $K=2$, each abundance in each star is described as the sum of a prompt and a delayed process contribution. We find that KPM with $K=2$ is able to explain the abundances well, recover the observed abundance bimodality, and detect the bimodality over a greater range in metallicity than previously has been possible. We compare to prior work by Weinberg et al. (2022), finding that KPM produces similar results, but that KPM better predicts stellar abundances, especially for elements C+N and Mn and for stars at super-solar metallicities. The model fixes the relative contribution of the prompt and delayed process to two elements to break degeneracies and improve interpretability; we find that some of the nucleosynthetic implications are dependent upon these detailed choices. We find that moving to four processes adds flexibility and improves the model's ability to predict the stellar abundances, but doesn't qualitatively change the story. The results of KPM will help us to interpret and constrain the formation of the Galaxy disk, the relationship between abundances and ages, and the physics of nucleosynthesis., Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables

Dramatic recent progress in understanding galactic chemical evolution (GCE) has been driven partly by direct observations of the distant past with HST and JWST of stellar abundances from giant high-resolution spectroscopic surveys (APOGEE, GALAH) and the complementary power of Gaia astrometry and photometry. Focusing on archaeology, I give a rapid-fire, and I hope synthesizing, review of work my collaborators and I have done on theoretical modeling and observational interpretation. I discuss (1) the interleaved but distinguishable roles of stellar scale astrophysics and galactic scale astrophysics in governing GCE, (2) the use of abundance ratio trends to empirically infer nucleosynthetic yields, (3) the uncertainty in the overall scale of yields and its degeneracy with the importance of galactic outflows, (4) the emergence of equilibrium in GCE, (5) the dimensionality of the stellar distribution in chemical abundance space, and (6) insights from chemical abundances on the early history of the Milky Way, including measurements of the intrinsic scatter of abundance ratios in metal-poor stars (-2 < [Fe/H] < -1), suggesting that a typical halo star at this metallicity is enriched by the products of $N \sim 50$ supernovae mixed over $\sim 10^5 M_\odot$ of star-forming gas., Comment: 10 pp. running lightly over a lot of ground. Proceedings of IAU Symposium 377, Early Disk-Galaxy Formation: From JWST to the Milky Way, eds. F. Tabatabaei, B. Barbuy, and Y. Ting. Reactions welcome!

We present the Cardinal mock galaxy catalogs, a new version of the Buzzard simulation that has been updated to support ongoing and future cosmological surveys, including DES, DESI, and LSST. These catalogs are based on a one-quarter sky simulation populated with galaxies out to a redshift of $z=2.35$ to a depth of $m_{\rm{r}}=27$. Compared to the Buzzard mocks, the Cardinal mocks include an updated subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) model that considers orphan galaxies and includes mass-dependent scatter between galaxy luminosity and halo properties. This model can simultaneously fit galaxy clustering and group--galaxy cross-correlations measured in three different luminosity threshold samples. The Cardinal mocks also feature a new color assignment model that can simultaneously fit color-dependent galaxy clustering in three different luminosity bins. We have developed an algorithm that uses photometric data to improve the color assignment model further and have also developed a novel method to improve small-scale lensing below the ray-tracing resolution. These improvements enable the Cardinal mocks to accurately reproduce the abundance of galaxy clusters and the properties of lens galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey data. As such, these simulations will be a valuable tool for future cosmological analyses based on large sky surveys. The cardinal mock will be released upon publication at https://chunhaoto.com/cardinalsim., Comment: 37 pages; 20 figures. See figure 1 for summary and appendix K for a list of main differences between Cardinal and Buzzard. To be submitted to APJ; Comments welcome. Highlights can be found at https://chunhaoto.com/cardinalsim

The abundance, temperature, and clustering of metals in the intergalactic medium are important parameters for understanding their cosmic evolution and quantifying their impact on cosmological analysis with the Ly $\alpha$ forest. The properties of these systems are typically measured from individual quasar spectra redward of the quasar's Ly $\alpha$ emission line, yet that approach may provide biased results due to selection effects. We present an alternative approach to measure these properties in an unbiased manner with the two-point statistics commonly employed to quantify large-scale structure. Our model treats the observed flux of a large sample of quasar spectra as a continuous field and describes the one-dimensional, two-point statistics of this field with three parameters per ion: the abundance (column density distribution), temperature (Doppler parameter) and clustering (cloud-cloud correlation function). We demonstrate this approach on multiple ions (e.g., C IV, Si IV, Mg II) with early data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and high-resolution spectra from the literature. Our initial results show some evidence that the C IV abundance is higher than previous measurements and evidence for abundance evolution over time. The first full year of DESI observations will have over an order of magnitude more quasar spectra than this study. In a future paper we will use those data to measure the growth of clustering and its impact on the Ly $\alpha$ forest, as well as test other DESI analysis infrastructure such as the pipeline noise estimates and the resolution matrix., Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted to MNRAS

We present novel constraints on the underlying galaxy formation physics (e.g., mass loading factor, star formation history, metal retention) at $z\gtrsim7$ for the low-mass ($M_*\sim10^5$ M$_\odot$) Local Group ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD) Eridanus {\sc II} (Eri II). Using a hierarchical Bayesian framework, we apply a one-zone chemical evolution model to Eri II's CaHK-based photometric metallicity distribution function (MDF; [Fe/H]) and find that the evolution of Eri II is well-characterized by a short, exponentially declining star-formation history ($\tau_\text{SFH}=0.39\pm_{0.13}^{0.18}$ Gyr), a low star-formation efficiency ($\tau_\text{SFE}=27.56\pm_{12.92}^{25.14}$ Gyr), and a large mass-loading factor ($\eta=194.53\pm_{42.67}^{33.37}$). Our results are consistent with Eri II forming the majority of its stars before the end of reionization. The large mass-loading factor implies strong outflows in the early history of Eri II and is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for the mass-scaling of galactic winds. It also results in the ejection of $>$90\% of the metals produced in Eri II. We make predictions for the distribution of [Mg/Fe]-[Fe/H] in Eri II as well as the prevalence of ultra metal-poor stars, both of which can be tested by future chemical abundance measurements. Spectroscopic follow-up of the highest metallicity stars in Eri II ($\text{[Fe/H]} > -2$) will greatly improve model constraints. Our new framework can readily be applied to all UFDs throughout the Local Group, providing new insights into the underlying physics governing the evolution of the faintest galaxies in the reionization era., Comment: 20 pages; 12 figures, submitted to MNRAS

We measure abundances of 12 elements (Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) in a sample of 86 metal-poor ($-2 \lesssim \text{[Fe/H]} \lesssim -1$) subgiant stars in the solar neighborhood. Abundances are derived from high-resolution spectra taken with the Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument on the Large Binocular Telescope, modeled using iSpec and MOOG. By carefully quantifying the impact of photon-noise ($< 0.05$ dex for all elements) we robustly measure the intrinsic scatter of abundance ratios. At fixed [Fe/H] the RMS intrinsic scatter in [X/Fe] ranges from 0.04 dex (Cr) to 0.16 dex (Na), with a median of 0.08 dex. Scatter in [X/Mg] is similar, and accounting for [$\alpha$/Fe] only reduces the overall scatter moderately. We consider several possible origins of the intrinsic scatter with particular attention to fluctuations in the relative enrichment by core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) and Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) and stochastic sampling of the CCSN progenitor mass distribution. The stochastic sampling scenario provides a good quantitative explanation of our data if the effective number of CCSN contributing to the enrichment of a typical sample star is $N \sim 50$. At the median metallicity of our sample, this interpretation implies that the CCSN ejecta are mixed over a gas mass $\sim 10^5 M_{\odot}$ before forming stars. The scatter of elemental abundance ratios is a powerful diagnostic test for simulations of star formation, feedback, and gas mixing in the early phases of the Galaxy., Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables

Massive disk galaxies like our Milky Way should host an ancient, metal-poor, and centrally concentrated stellar population. This population reflects the star formation and enrichment in the few most massive progenitor components that coalesced at high redshift to form the proto-Galaxy. While metal-poor stars are known to reside in the inner few kiloparsecs of our Galaxy, current data do not yet provide a comprehensive picture of such a metal-poor "heart" of the Milky Way. We use information from Gaia DR3, especially the XP spectra, to construct a sample of 2 million bright (BP $<15.5$ mag) giant stars within $30^\circ$ of the Galactic Center with robust [M/H] estimates, $\delta$ [M/H] $\lesssim 0.1$. For most sample members we can calculate orbits based on Gaia RVS velocities and astrometry. This sample reveals an extensive, ancient, and metal-poor population that includes $\sim 18,000$ stars with $-2.7<$ [M/H] $<-1.5$, representing a stellar mass of $\gtrsim 5\times 10^7$ M$_\odot$. The spatial distribution of these [M/H] $<-1.5$ stars has a Gaussian extent of only $\sigma_{\mathrm{R_{GC}}} \sim 2.7$ kpc around the Galactic center, with most of these orbits being confined to the inner Galaxy. At high orbital eccentricities, there is clear evidence for accreted halo stars in their pericentral orbit phase. Stars with [M/H] $< -2$ show no net rotation, whereas those with [M/H] $\sim -1$ are rotation dominated. Most of the tightly bound stars show $[\alpha/\text{Fe}]$-enhancement and [Al/Fe]-[Mn/Fe] abundance patterns expected for an origin in the more massive portions of the proto-Galaxy. These central, metal-poor stars most likely predate the oldest part of the disk ($\tau_{\text{age}}\approx 12.5$ Gyrs), which implies that they formed at $z\gtrsim 5$, forging the proto-Milky Way., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, submitted to ApJ

We describe the Milky Way Survey (MWS) that will be undertaken with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on the Mayall 4m telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Over the next 5 yr DESI MWS will observe approximately seven million stars at Galactic latitudes |b|>20 degrees, with an inclusive target selection scheme focused on the thick disk and stellar halo. MWS will also include several high-completeness samples of rare stellar types, including white dwarfs, low-mass stars within 100pc of the Sun, and horizontal branch stars. We summarize the potential of DESI to advance understanding of Galactic structure and stellar evolution. We introduce the final definitions of the main MWS target classes and estimate the number of stars in each class that will be observed. We describe our pipelines for deriving radial velocities, atmospheric parameters, and chemical abundances. We use ~500,000 spectra of unique stellar targets from the DESI Survey Validation program (SV) to demonstrate that our pipelines can measure radial velocities to ~1 km/s and [Fe/H] accurate to ~0.2 dex for typical stars in our main sample. We find the stellar parameter distributions from ~100 sq. deg of SV observations with >90% completeness on our main sample are in good agreement with expectations from mock catalogs and previous surveys., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 44 pages, 25 figures, 4 tables, one of a suite of 8 papers detailing targeting for DESI; v2 added links to data shown in figures, added citations to other DESI papers, corrected author list and minor typos; v3 fixed minor errors in Fig. 6 and clarified associated text; v4 updated to include minor changes in response to review

Over the next five years, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will use 10 spectrographs with 5000 fibers on the 4m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to conduct the first Stage-IV dark energy galaxy survey. At $z < 0.6$, the DESI Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will produce the most detailed map of the Universe during the dark energy dominated epoch with redshifts of >10 million galaxies over 14,000 deg$^2$. In this work, we present and validate the final BGS target selection and survey design. From the Legacy Surveys, BGS will target a $r < 19.5$ magnitude-limited sample (BGS Bright); a fainter $19.5 < r < 20.175$ sample, color-selected to have high redshift efficiency (BGS Faint); and a smaller low-z quasar sample. BGS will observe these targets using exposure times, scaled to achieve uniform completeness, and visit each point on the footprint three times. We use observations from the Survey Validation programs conducted prior to the main survey along with realistic simulations to show that BGS can complete its strategy and make optimal use of `bright' time. We demonstrate that BGS targets have stellar contamination <1% and that their densities do not depend strongly on imaging properties. We also confirm that BGS Bright will achieve >80% fiber assignment efficiency. Finally, we show that BGS Bright and Faint will achieve >95% redshift success rates with no significant dependence on observing conditions. BGS meets the requirements for an extensive range of scientific applications. BGS will yield the most precise Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Redshift-Space Distortions measurements at $z < 0.4$. It also presents opportunities to exploit new methods that require highly complete and dense galaxy samples (e.g. N-point statistics, multi-tracers). BGS further provides a powerful tool to study galaxy populations and the relations between galaxies and dark matter., Comment: AJ, submitted, 34 pages, 22 figures, one of a suite of 8 papers detailing targeting for DESI

Galactic haloes in a $\Lambda$-CDM universe are predicted to host today a swarm of debris resulting from cannibalised dwarf galaxies. The chemo-dynamical information recorded in their stellar populations helps elucidate their nature, constraining the assembly history of the Galaxy. Using data from APOGEE and \textit{Gaia}, we examine the chemical properties of various halo substructures, considering elements that sample various nucleosynthetic pathways. The systems studied are Heracles, \textit{Gaia}-Enceladus/Sausage (GES), the Helmi stream, Sequoia, Thamnos, Aleph, LMS-1, Arjuna, I'itoi, Nyx, Icarus, and Pontus. Abundance patterns of all substructures are cross-compared in a statistically robust fashion. Our main findings include: {\it i)} the chemical properties of most substructures studied match qualitatively those of dwarf Milky Way satellites, such as the Sagittarius dSph. Exceptions are Nyx and Aleph, which are chemically similar to disc stars, implying that these substructures were likely formed \textit{in situ}; {\it ii)} Heracles differs chemically from {\it in situ} populations such as Aurora and its inner halo counterparts in a statistically significant way. The differences suggest that the star formation rate was lower in Heracles than in the early Milky Way; {\it iii)} the chemistry of Arjuna, LMS-1, and I'itoi is indistinguishable from that of GES, suggesting a possible common origin; {\it iv)} all three Sequoia samples studied are qualitatively similar. However, only two of those samples present chemistry that is consistent with GES in a statistically significant fashion; {\it v)} the abundance patterns of the Helmi stream and Thamnos are different from all other halo substructures., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The revised version contains a detailed comparison of the chemical composition of Heracles against Aurora and its inner halo in situ counterparts as well as a revised discussion of the chemistry of various Sequoia samples in contrast with Gaia-Enceladus/Sausage

We use chemistry ([alpha/Fe] and [Fe/H]), main sequence turnoff ages, and kinematics determined from H3 Survey spectroscopy and Gaia astrometry to identify the birth of the Galactic disk. We separate in-situ and accreted stars on the basis of angular momenta and eccentricities. The sequence of high-alpha in-situ stars persists down to at least [Fe/H]=-2.5 and shows unexpected non-monotonic behavior: with increasing metallicity the population first declines in [alpha/Fe], then increases over the range -1.3<[Fe/H]<-0.7, and then declines again at higher metallicities. The number of stars in the in-situ population rapidly increases above [Fe/H]=-1. The average kinematics of these stars are hot and independent of metallicity at [Fe/H]<-1 and then become increasingly cold and disk-like at higher metallicities. The ages of the in-situ, high-alpha stars are uniformly very old (13 Gyr) at [Fe/H]<-1.3, and span a wider range (8-12 Gyr) at higher metallicities. Interpreting the chemistry with a simple chemical evolution model suggests that the non-monotonic behavior is due to a significant increase in star formation efficiency, which began 13 Gyr ago. These results support a picture in which the first 1 Gyr of the Galaxy was characterized by a "simmering phase" in which the star formation efficiency was low and the kinematics had substantial disorder with some net rotation. The disk then underwent a dramatic transformation to a "boiling phase", in which the star formation efficiency increased substantially, the kinematics became disk-like, and the number of stars formed increased tenfold. We interpret this transformation as the birth of the Galactic disk at z~4. The physical origin of this transformation is unclear and does not seem to be reproduced in current galaxy formation models., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to OJAp

We report the first direct measurement of the helium isotope ratio, 3He/4He, outside of the Local Interstellar Cloud, as part of science verification observations with the upgraded CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES). Our determination of 3He/4He is based on metastable HeI* absorption along the line-of-sight towards Tet02 Ori A in the Orion Nebula. We measure a value 3He/4He=(1.77+/-0.13)x10^{-4}, which is just ~40 per cent above the primordial relative abundance of these isotopes, assuming the Standard Model of particle physics and cosmology, (3He/4He)_p = (1.257+/-0.017)x10^-4. We calculate a suite of galactic chemical evolution simulations to study the Galactic build up of these isotopes, using the yields from Limongi & Chieffi (2018) for stars in the mass range M=8-100 M_sun and Lagarde (2011,2012) for M=0.8-8 M_sun. We find that these simulations simultaneously reproduce the Orion and protosolar 3He/4He values if the calculations are initialized with a primordial ratio (3He/4He)_p=(1.043+/-0.089)x10^-4. Even though the quoted error does not include the model uncertainty, this determination agrees with the Standard Model value to within ~2sigma. We also use the present-day Galactic abundance of deuterium (D/H), helium (He/H), and 3He/4He to infer an empirical limit on the primordial 3He abundance, (3He/H)_p < (1.09+/-0.18)x10^-5, which also agrees with the Standard Model value. We point out that it is becoming increasingly difficult to explain the discrepant primordial 7Li/H abundance with non-standard physics, without breaking the remarkable simultaneous agreement of three primordial element ratios (D/H, 4He/H, and 3He/4He) with the Standard Model values., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, Resubmitted to the Astrophysical Journal after addressing referee comments

Cosmological constraints from current and upcoming galaxy cluster surveys are limited by the accuracy of cluster mass calibration. In particular, optically identified galaxy clusters are prone to selection effects that can bias the weak lensing mass calibration. We investigate the selection bias of the stacked cluster lensing signal associated with optically selected clusters, using clusters identified by the redMaPPer algorithm in the Buzzard simulations as a case study. We find that at a given cluster halo mass, the residuals of redMaPPer richness and weak lensing signal are positively correlated. As a result, for a given richness selection, the stacked lensing signal is biased high compared with what we would expect from the underlying halo mass probability distribution. The cluster lensing selection bias can thus lead to overestimated mean cluster mass and biased cosmology results. We show that the lensing selection bias exhibits a strong scale-dependence and is approximately 20 to 60 percent for $\Delta\Sigma$ at large scales. This selection bias largely originates from spurious member galaxies within +/- 20 to 60 Mpc/h along the line of sight, highlighting the importance of quantifying projection effects associated with the broad redshift distribution of member galaxies in photometric cluster surveys. While our results qualitatively agree with those in the literature, accurate quantitative modelling of the selection bias is needed to achieve the goals of cluster lensing cosmology and will require synthetic catalogues covering a wide range of galaxy-halo connection models., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures; replaced to match published version

We derive empirical constraints on the nucleosynthetic yields of nitrogen by incorporating N enrichment into our previously developed and empirically tuned multi-zone galactic chemical evolution model. We adopt a metallicity-independent ("primary") N yield from massive stars and a metallicity-dependent ("secondary") N yield from AGB stars. In our model, galactic radial zones do not evolve along the observed [N/O]-[O/H] relation, but first increase in [O/H] at roughly constant [N/O], then move upward in [N/O] via secondary N production. By $t\approx5$ Gyr, the model approaches an equilibrium [N/O]-[O/H] relation, which traces the radial oxygen gradient. We find good agreement with the [N/O]-[O/H] trend observed in extra-galactic systems if we adopt an IMF-averaged massive star yield $y_\text{N}^\text{CC}=3.6\times10^{-4}$, consistent with predictions for rapidly rotating progenitors, and a fractional AGB yield that is linear in mass and metallicity $y_\text{N}^\text{AGB}=(9\times10^{-4})(M_*/M_\odot)(Z_*/Z_\odot)$. This model reproduces the [N/O]-[O/H] relation found for Milky Way stars in the APOGEE survey, and it reproduces (though imperfectly) the trends of stellar [N/O] with age and [O/Fe]. The metallicity-dependent yield plays the dominant role in shaping the gas-phase [N/O]-[O/H] relation, but the AGB time-delay is required to match the APOGEE stellar age and [O/Fe] trends. If we add $\sim$40\% oscillations to the star formation rate, the model reproduces the scatter in gas-phase [N/O] vs. [O/H] observed in external galaxies by MaNGA. We also construct models using published AGB yields and examine their empirical successes and shortcomings. For all AGB yields we consider, simple stellar populations release half their N after only $\sim$250 Myr., Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. See Figs. 5, 6, and 9 for key results. Submitted to MNRAS

This paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar) accompanies this data, providing observations of almost 30,000 stars through the MaNGA instrument during bright time. DR17 also contains the complete release of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) survey which publicly releases infra-red spectra of over 650,000 stars. The main sample from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), as well as the sub-survey Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) data were fully released in DR16. New single-fiber optical spectroscopy released in DR17 is from the SPectroscipic IDentification of ERosita Survey (SPIDERS) sub-survey and the eBOSS-RM program. Along with the primary data sets, DR17 includes 25 new or updated Value Added Catalogs (VACs). This paper concludes the release of SDSS-IV survey data. SDSS continues into its fifth phase with observations already underway for the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), Local Volume Mapper (LVM) and Black Hole Mapper (BHM) surveys., Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables. In press at ApJSS (arxiv v2 corrects some minor typos and updates references)

Extragalactic Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have large dispersion measures (DMs) and are unique probes of intergalactic electron density fluctuations. By using the recently released First CHIME/FRB Catalog, we reexamined the structure function (SF) of DM fluctuations. It shows a large DM fluctuation similar to that previously reported in Xu & Zhang (2020), but no clear correlation hinting towards large scale turbulence is reproduced with this larger sample. To suppress the distortion effect from FRB distances and their host DMs, we focus on a subset of CHIME catalog with DM $<500$ pc cm$^{-3}$. A trend of non-constant SF and non-zero correlation function (CF) at angular separations $\theta$ less than $10^\circ$ is seen, but with large statistical uncertainties. The difference found between SF and that derived from CF at $\theta \lesssim 10^\circ$ can be ascribed to the large statistical uncertainties or the density inhomogeneities on scales on the order of $100$ Mpc. The possible correlation of electron density fluctuations and inhomogeneities of density distribution should be tested when several thousands of FRBs are available., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

We investigate the [X/Mg] abundances of 16 elements for 82,910 Galactic disk stars from GALAH+ DR3. We fit the median trends of low-Ia and high-Ia populations with a two-process model, which describes stellar abundances in terms of a prompt core-collapse and delayed Type-Ia supernova component. For each sample star, we fit the amplitudes of these two components and compute the residual $\Delta$[X/H] abundances from this two-parameter fit. We find RMS residuals $\lesssim 0.07$ dex for well-measured elements and correlated residuals among some elements (such as Ba, Y, and Zn) that indicate common enrichment sources. From a detailed investigation of stars with large residuals, we infer that roughly $40\%$ of the large deviations are physical and $60\%$ are caused by problematic data such as unflagged binarity, poor wavelength solutions, and poor telluric subtraction. As one example of a population with distinctive abundance patterns, we identify 15 stars that have 0.3-0.6 dex enhancements of Na but normal abundances of other elements from O to Ni and positive average residuals of Cu, Zn, Y, and Ba. We measure the median elemental residuals of 14 open clusters, finding systematic $\sim0.1-0.4$ dex enhancements of O, Ca, K, Y, and Ba and $\sim0.2$ dex depletion of Cu in young clusters. Finally, we present a restricted three-process model where we add an asymptotic giant branch star (AGB) component to better fit Ba and Y. With the addition of the third process, we identify a population of stars, preferentially young, that have much higher AGB enrichment than expected from their SNIa enrichment., Comment: 34 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will conduct a High Latitude Spectroscopic Survey (HLSS) over a large volume at high redshift, using the near-IR grism (1.0-1.93 $\mu$m, $R=435-865$) and the 0.28 deg$^2$ wide field camera. We present a reference HLSS which maps 2000 deg$^2$ and achieves an emission line flux limit of 10$^{-16}$ erg/s/cm$^2$ at 6.5$\sigma$, requiring $\sim$0.6 yrs of observing time. We summarize the flowdown of the Roman science objectives to the science and technical requirements of the HLSS. We construct a mock redshift survey over the full HLSS volume by applying a semi-analytic galaxy formation model to a cosmological N-body simulation, and use this mock survey to create pixel-level simulations of 4 deg$^2$ of HLSS grism spectroscopy. We find that the reference HLSS would measure $\sim$ 10 million H$\alpha$ galaxy redshifts that densely map large scale structure at $z=1-2$ and 2 million [OIII] galaxy redshifts that sparsely map structures at $z=2-3$. We forecast the performance of this survey for measurements of the cosmic expansion history with baryon acoustic oscillations and the growth of large scale structure with redshift space distortions. We also study possible deviations from the reference design, and find that a deep HLSS at $f_{\rm line}>7\times10^{-17}$erg/s/cm$^2$ over 4000 deg$^2$ (requiring $\sim$1.5 yrs of observing time) provides the most compelling stand-alone constraints on dark energy from Roman alone. This provides a useful reference for future optimizations. The reference survey, simulated data sets, and forecasts presented here will inform community decisions on the final scope and design of the Roman HLSS., Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures, ApJ submitted

The SDSS-IV Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey has obtained high-resolution spectra for thousands of red giant stars distributed among the massive satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (MW): the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), the Sagittarius Dwarf (Sgr), Fornax (Fnx), and the now fully disrupted \emph{Gaia} Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) system. We present and analyze the APOGEE chemical abundance patterns of each galaxy to draw robust conclusions about their star formation histories, by quantifying the relative abundance trends of multiple elements (C, N, O, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Fe, Ni, and Ce), as well as by fitting chemical evolution models to the [$\alpha$/Fe]-[Fe/H] abundance plane for each galaxy. Results show that the chemical signatures of the starburst in the MCs observed by Nidever et al. in the $\alpha$-element abundances extend to C+N, Al, and Ni, with the major burst in the SMC occurring some 3-4 Gyr before the burst in the LMC. We find that Sgr and Fnx also exhibit chemical abundance patterns suggestive of secondary star formation epochs, but these events were weaker and earlier ($\sim$~5-7 Gyr ago) than those observed in the MCs. There is no chemical evidence of a second starburst in GSE, but this galaxy shows the strongest initial star formation as compared to the other four galaxies. All dwarf galaxies had greater relative contributions of AGB stars to their enrichment than the MW. Comparing and contrasting these chemical patterns highlight the importance of galaxy environment on its chemical evolution., Comment: 37 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We apply a novel statistical analysis to measurements of 16 elemental abundances in 34,410 Milky Way disk stars from the final data release (DR17) of APOGEE-2. Building on recent work, we fit median abundance ratio trends [X/Mg] vs. [Mg/H] with a 2-process model, which decomposes abundance patterns into a "prompt" component tracing core collapse supernovae and a "delayed" component tracing Type Ia supernovae. For each sample star, we fit the amplitudes of these two components, then compute the residuals \Delta[X/H] from this two-parameter fit. The rms residuals range from ~0.01-0.03 dex for the most precisely measured APOGEE abundances to ~0.1 dex for Na, V, and Ce. The correlations of residuals reveal a complex underlying structure, including a correlated element group comprised of Ca, Na, Al, K, Cr, and Ce and a separate group comprised of Ni, V, Mn, and Co. Selecting stars poorly fit by the 2-process model reveals a rich variety of physical outliers and sometimes subtle measurement errors. Residual abundances allow comparison of populations controlled for differences in metallicity and [\alpha/Fe]. Relative to the main disk (R=3-13 kpc, |Z|<2 kpc), we find nearly identical abundance patterns in the outer disk (R=15-17 kpc), 0.05-0.2 dex depressions of multiple elements in LMC and Gaia Sausage/Enceladus stars, and wild deviations (0.4-1 dex) of multiple elements in \omega Cen. Residual abundance analysis opens new opportunities for discovering chemically distinctive stars and stellar populations, for empirically constraining nucleosynthetic yields, and for testing chemical evolution models that include stochasticity in the production and redistribution of elements., Comment: Submitted to AAS journals. Long paper, many figures; see end of Section 1 for a reader's guide

The combination of galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL) and galaxy clustering is a powerful probe of low redshift matter clustering, especially if it is extended to the non-linear regime. To this end, we extend the N-body and halo occupation distribution (HOD) emulator method of arxiv:1907.06293 to model the redMaGiC sample of colour-selected passive galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey (DES), adding parameters that describe central galaxy incompleteness, galaxy assembly bias, and a scale-independent multiplicative lensing bias $A_{lens}$. We use this emulator to forecast cosmological constraints attainable from the GGL surface density profile $\Delta\Sigma(r_p)$ and the projected galaxy correlation function $w_{p,gg}(r_p)$ in the final (Year 6) DES data set over scales $r_p=0.3-30h^{-1}$ Mpc. For a $3\%$ prior on $A_{lens}$ we forecast precisions of $1.9\%$, $2.0\%$, and $1.9\%$ on $\Omega_m$, $\sigma_8$, and $S_8 \equiv \sigma_8\Omega_m^{0.5}$, marginalized over all halo occupation distribution (HOD) parameters as well as $A_{lens}$ and a point-mass contribution to $\Delta\Sigma$. Adding scales $r_p=0.3-3h^{-1}$ Mpc improves the $S_8$ precision by a factor of $\sim1.6$ relative to a large scale ($3.0-30.0h^{-1}$ Mpc) analysis, equivalent to increasing the survey area by a factor of ${\sim}2.6$. Sharpening the $A_{lens}$ prior to $1\%$ further improves the $S_8$ precision by a factor of $1.7$ (to $1.1\%$), and it amplifies the gain from including non-linear scales. Our emulator achieves percent-level accuracy similar to the projected DES statistical uncertainties, demonstrating the feasibility of a fully non-linear analysis. Obtaining precise parameter constraints from multiple galaxy types and from measurements that span linear and non-linear clustering offers many opportunities for internal cross-checks, which can diagnose systematics and demonstrate the robustness of cosmological results., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, to be submitted to MNRAS

Surface abundances of C, N, and O in red giants are affected by processed material mixed into the stars' convective envelopes. Using a sample of $\sim 5100$ stars with elemental abundances from APOGEE and asteroseismic masses from {\it Kepler}, we test theoretical stellar models that predict this mixing, then apply these models to derive birth C, N, and O abundances for these stars. Our models with standard mixing can reproduce the observed trends to within plausible uncertainties in the birth abundances. Some models with ''extra'' mixing processes fail, predicting trends with surface gravity or evolutionary state that are not observed. Applying mixing corrections to the APOGEE abundances removes the observed age-dependence of log(N/O) and log(C/N), but it leaves trends of log(N/O) and log(C/N) with metallicity, as expected based on nucleosynthesis models. The stellar N/O trend agrees well with Dopita et al.'s calibration of gas phase log(N/O) with metallicity, and with gas phase trends in the MaNGA integral field survey of nearby galaxies. We also find a substantial separation in birth [N/Mg] ratios between high-[$\alpha$/Fe] (''thick disc'') stars and low-[$\alpha$/Fe] (''thin disc'') stars. We find a smaller but still clear separation for [C/Mg]. The trends of birth C and N abundances with [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe] could affect spectroscopic age estimates for red giants that rely on the observed C/N ratio as a diagnostic of stellar mass., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

Although galactic winds play a critical role in regulating galaxy formation, hydrodynamic cosmological simulations do not resolve the scales that govern the interaction between winds and the ambient circumgalactic medium (CGM). We implement the Physically Evolved Wind (PhEW) model of Huang et al. (2020) in the GIZMO hydrodynamics code and perform test cosmological simulations with different choices of model parameters and numerical resolution. PhEW adopts an explicit subgrid model that treats each wind particle as a collection of clouds that exchange mass, metals, and momentum with their surroundings and evaporate by conduction and hydrodynamic instabilities as calibrated on much higher resolution cloud scale simulations. In contrast to a conventional wind algorithm, we find that PhEW results are robust to numerical resolution and implementation details because the small scale interactions are defined by the model itself. Compared to conventional wind simulations with the same resolution, our PhEW simulations produce similar galaxy stellar mass functions at $z\geq 1$ but are in better agreement with low-redshift observations at $M_* < 10^{11}M_\odot$ because PhEW particles shed mass to the CGM before escaping low mass halos. PhEW radically alters the CGM metal distribution because PhEW particles disperse metals to the ambient medium as their clouds dissipate, producing a CGM metallicity distribution that is skewed but unimodal and is similar between cold and hot gas. While the temperature distributions and radial profiles of gaseous halos are similar in simulations with PhEW and conventional winds, these changes in metal distribution will affect their predicted UV/X-ray properties in absorption and emission., Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures, MNRAS accepted

The landscape of black hole (BH) formation -- which massive stars explode as core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) and which implode to BHs -- profoundly affects the IMF-averaged nucleosynthetic yields of a stellar population. Building on the work of Sukhbold et al. (2016), we compute IMF-averaged yields at solar metallicity for a wide range of assumptions, including neutrino-driven engine models with extensive BH formation, models with a simple mass threshold for BH formation, and a model in which all stars from $8-120 \text{M}_{\odot}$ explode. For plausible choices, the overall yields of $\alpha$-elements span a factor of three, but changes in relative yields are more subtle, typically $0.05-0.2$ dex. For constraining the overall level of BH formation, ratios of C and N to O or Mg are promising diagnostics. For distinguishing complex, theoretically motivated landscapes from simple mass thresholds, abundance ratios involving Mn or Ni are promising because of their sensitivity to the core structure of the CCSN progenitors. We confirm previous findings of a substantial (factor $2.5-4$) discrepancy between predicted O/Mg yield ratios and observationally inferred values, implying that models either overproduce O or underproduce Mg. No landscape choice achieves across-the-board agreement with observed abundance ratios; the discrepancies offer empirical clues to aspects of massive star evolution or explosion physics still missing from the models. We find qualitatively similar results using the massive star yields of Limongi & Chieffi (2018). We provide tables of IMF-integrated yields for several landscape scenarios, and more flexible user-designed models can be implemented through the publicly available $\texttt{Versatile Integrator for Chemical Evolution}$ ($\texttt{VICE}$; https://pypi.org/project/vice/)., Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables

We develop a hybrid model of galactic chemical evolution that combines a multi-ring computation of chemical enrichment with a prescription for stellar migration and the vertical distribution of stellar populations informed by a cosmological hydrodynamic disc galaxy simulation. Our fiducial model adopts empirically motivated forms of the star formation law and star formation history, with a gradient in outflow mass loading tuned to reproduce the observed metallicity gradient. With this approach, the model reproduces many of the striking qualitative features of the Milky Way disc's abundance structure: (i) the dependence of the [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] distribution on radius $R_\text{gal}$ and midplane distance $|z|$; (ii) the changing shapes of the [O/H] and [Fe/H] distributions with $R_\text{gal}$ and $|z|$; (iii) a broad distribution of [O/Fe] at sub-solar metallicity and changes in the [O/Fe] distribution with $R_\text{gal}$, $|z|$, and [Fe/H]; (iv) a tight correlation between [O/Fe] and stellar age for [O/Fe] $>$ 0.1; (v) a population of young and intermediate-age $\alpha$-enhanced stars caused by migration-induced variability in the Type Ia supernova rate; (vi) non-monotonic age-[O/H] and age-[Fe/H] relations, with large scatter and a median age of $\sim$4 Gyr near solar metallicity. Observationally motivated models with an enhanced star formation rate $\sim$2 Gyr ago improve agreement with the observed age-[Fe/H] and age-[O/H] relations, but worsen agreement with the observed age-[O/Fe] relation. None of our models predict an [O/Fe] distribution with the distinct bimodality seen in the observations, suggesting that more dramatic evolutionary pathways are required. All code and tables used for our models are publicly available through the Versatile Integrator for Chemical Evolution (VICE; https://pypi.org/project/vice)., Comment: 24 pages; 18 figures; to be submitted to MNRAS; comments welcome

Some studies of stars' multi-element abundance distributions suggest at least 5-7 significant dimensions, but others show that many elemental abundances can be predicted to high accuracy from [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe] (or [Fe/H] and age) alone. We show that both propositions can be, and are, simultaneously true. We adopt a machine learning technique known as normalizing flow to reconstruct the probability distribution of Milky Way disk stars in the space of 15 elemental abundances measured by APOGEE. Conditioning on Teff and log g minimizes the differential systematics. After further conditioning on [Fe/H] and [Mg/Fe], the residual scatter for most abundances is $\sigma_{[X/{\rm H}]} \lesssim 0.02$ dex, consistent with APOGEE's reported statistical uncertainties of $\sim$0.01-0.015 dex and intrinsic scatter of 0.01-0.02 dex. Despite the small scatter, residual abundances display clear correlations between elements, which we show are too large to be explained by measurement uncertainties or by the finite sampling noise. We must condition on at least seven elements to reduce correlations to a level consistent with observational uncertainties. Our results demonstrate that cross-element correlations are a much more sensitive probe of hidden structure than dispersion, and they can be measured precisely in a large sample even if star-by-star measurement noise is comparable to the intrinsic scatter. We conclude that many elements have an independent story to tell, even for the "mundane" disk stars and elements produced by core-collapse and Type Ia supernovae. The only way to learn these lessons is to measure the abundances directly, and not merely infer them., Comment: 36 pages, 17 figures, ApJ (Accepted for publication)

We test the hypothesis that the observed first-peak (Sr, Y, Zr) and second-peak (Ba) s-process elemental abundances in low-metallicity Milky Way stars, and the abundances of the elements Mo and Ru, can be explained by a pervasive r-process contribution originating in neutrino-driven winds from highly-magnetic and rapidly rotating proto-neutron stars (proto-NSs). We construct chemical evolution models that incorporate recent calculations of proto-NS yields in addition to contributions from AGB stars, Type Ia supernovae, and two alternative sets of yields for massive star winds and core-collapse supernovae. For non-rotating massive star yields from either set, models without proto-NS winds underpredict the observed s-process peak abundances by $0.3$-$1\,\text{dex}$ at low metallicity, and they severely underpredict Mo and Ru at all metallicities. Models incorporating wind yields from proto-NSs with spin periods $P \sim 2$-$5\,\text{ms}$ fit the observed trends for all these elements well. Alternatively, models omitting proto-NS winds but adopting yields of rapidly rotating massive stars, with $v_{\rm rot}$ between $150$ and $300\,\text{km}\,\text{s}^{-1}$, can explain the observed abundance levels reasonably well for $\text{[Fe/H]}<-2$. These models overpredict [Sr/Fe] and [Mo/Fe] at higher metallicities, but with a tuned dependence of $v_{\rm rot}$ on stellar metallicity they might achieve an acceptable fit at all [Fe/H]. If many proto-NSs are born with strong magnetic fields and short spin periods, then their neutrino-driven winds provide a natural source for Sr, Y, Zr, Mo, Ru, and Ba in low-metallicity stellar populations. Conversely, spherical winds from unmagnetized proto-NSs overproduce the observed Sr, Y, and Zr abundances by a large factor., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Using a sample of red giant stars from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) Data Release 16, we infer the conditional distribution $p([\alpha/\text{Fe}]\,|\,[\text{Fe/H}])$ in the Milky Way disk for the $\alpha$-elements Mg, O, Si, S, and Ca. In each bin of [Fe/H] and Galactocentric radius $R$, we model $p([\alpha/\text{Fe}])$ as a sum of two Gaussians, representing "low-$\alpha$" and "high-$\alpha$" populations with scale heights $z_1=0.45\,\text{kpc}$ and $z_2=0.95\,\text{kpc}$, respectively. By accounting for age-dependent and $z$-dependent selection effects in APOGEE, we infer the [$\alpha$/Fe] distributions that would be found for a fair sample of long-lived stars covering all $z$. Near the Solar circle, this distribution is bimodal at sub-solar [Fe/H], with the low-$\alpha$ and high-$\alpha$ peaks clearly separated by a minimum at intermediate [$\alpha$/Fe]. In agreement with previous results, we find that the high-$\alpha$ population is more prominent at smaller $R$, lower [Fe/H], and larger $|z|$, and that the sequence separation is smaller for Si and Ca than for Mg, O, and S. We find significant intrinsic scatter in [$\alpha$/Fe] at fixed [Fe/H] for both the low-$\alpha$ and high-$\alpha$ populations, typically $\sim 0.04$-dex. The means, dispersions, and relative amplitudes of this two-Gaussian description, and the dependence of these parameters on $R$, [Fe/H], and $\alpha$-element, provide a quantitative target for chemical evolution models and a test for hydrodynamic simulations of disk galaxy formation. We argue that explaining the observed bimodality will probably require one or more sharp transitions in the disk's gas accretion, star formation, or outflow history in addition to radial mixing of stellar populations., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We forecast constraints on the amplitude of matter clustering sigma_8(z) achievable with the combination of cluster weak lensing and number counts, in current and next-generation weak lensing surveys. We advocate an approach, analogous to galaxy-galaxy lensing, in which the observables in each redshift bin are the mean number counts and the mean weak lensing profile of clusters above a mass proxy threshold. The primary astrophysical nuisance parameter is the logarithmic scatter between the mass proxy and true mass near the threshold. For surveys similar to the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Roman Space Telescope High Latitude Survey (HLS), and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), we forecast aggregate precision on sigma_8 of 0.26%, 0.24%, and 0.10%, respectively, if the mass-observable scatter has an external prior better than 0.01. These constraints would be degraded by about 20% for a 0.05 prior on scatter in the case of DES or HLS and for a 0.016 prior for LSST. A one-month observing program with Roman Space Telescope targeting approximately 2500 massive clusters could achieve a 0.5% constraint on sigma_8(z=0.7) on its own, or a ~0.33% constraint in combination with the HLS. Realizing the constraining power of clusters requires accurate knowledge of the mass-observable relation and stringent control of systematics. We provide analytic approximations to our numerical results that allow easy scaling to other survey assumptions or other methods of cluster mass estimation., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures; replaced to match published version

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will execute a nearly magnitude-limited survey of low redshift galaxies ($0.05 \leq z \leq 0.4$, median $z \approx 0.2$). Clustering analyses of this Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) will yield the most precise measurements to date of baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift-space distortions at low redshift. DESI BGS will comprise two target classes: (i) BRIGHT ($r<19.5$~mag), and (ii) FAINT ($19.5

We investigate the level of galaxy assembly bias in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) main galaxy sample using ELUCID, a state-of-the-art constrained simulation that accurately reconstructed the initial density perturbations within the SDSS volume. On top of the ELUCID haloes, we develop an extended HOD model that includes the assembly bias of central and satellite galaxies, parameterized as $\mathcal{Q}_\mathrm{cen}$ and $\mathcal{Q}_\mathrm{sat}$, respectively, to predict a suite of one- and two-point observables. In particular, our fiducial constraint employs the probability distribution of the galaxy number counts measured on $8\,\mathrm{Mpc}\,h^{-1}$ scales $N_8^g$ and the projected cross-correlation functions of quintiles of galaxies selected by $N_8^g$ with our entire galaxy sample. We perform extensive tests of the efficacy of our method by fitting the same observables to mock data using both constrained and non-constrained simulations. We discover that in many cases the level of cosmic variance between the two simulations can produce biased constraints that lead to an erroneous detection of galaxy assembly bias if the non-constrained simulation is used. When applying our method to the SDSS data, the ELUCID reconstruction effectively removes an otherwise strong degeneracy between cosmic variance and galaxy assembly bias in SDSS, enabling us to derive an accurate and stringent constraint on the latter. Our fiducial ELUCID constraint, for galaxies above a stellar mass threshold $M_*{=}10^{10.2}\,h^{-2}\,M_\odot$, is $\mathcal{Q}_\mathrm{cen}{=}{-}0.09\pm{0.05}$ and $\mathcal{Q}_\mathrm{sat}{=}0.09\pm{0.10}$, indicating no evidence for a significant~($>2\sigma$) galaxy assembly bias in the local Universe probed by SDSS. Finally, our method provides a promising path to the robust modelling of the galaxy-halo connection within future surveys like DESI and PFS., Comment: 25 pages, 7 main figures, and 2 appendix figures; accepted by SCPMA (https://www.sciengine.com/SCPMA/doi/10.1007/s11433-022-1955-7); highlight review (https://www.sciengine.com/SCPMA/doi/10.1007/s11433-022-1967-6)

We compare abundance ratio trends in a sample of $\sim 11,000$ Milky Way bulge stars ($R_{\rm GC} < 3$ kpc) from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) to those of APOGEE stars in the Galactic disk ($5$ kpc $< R_{\rm GC} < 11$ kpc). We divide each sample into low-Ia (high-[Mg/Fe]) and high-Ia (low-[Mg/Fe]) populations, and in each population we examine the median trends of [X/Mg] vs. [Mg/H] for elements X = Fe, O, Na, Al, Si, P, S, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, and Ce. To remove small systematic trends of APOGEE abundances with stellar $\log(g)$, we resample the disk stars to match the $\log(g)$ distributions of the bulge data. After doing so, we find nearly identical median trends for low-Ia disk and bulge stars for all elements. High-Ia trends are similar for most elements, with noticeable (0.05-0.1 dex) differences for Mn, Na, and Co. The close agreement of abundance trends (with typical differences $\lesssim 0.03$ dex) implies that similar nucleosynthetic processes enriched bulge and disk stars despite the different star formation histories and physical conditions of these regions. For example, we infer that differences in the high mass slope of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) between disk and bulge must have been $\lesssim 0.30$. This agreement, and the generally small scatter about the median sequences, means that one can predict all of a bulge star's APOGEE abundances with good accuracy knowing only its measured [Mg/Fe] and [Mg/H] and the observed trends of disk stars., Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, 5 tables

We present the steps taken to produce a reliable and complete input galaxy catalogue for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS) using the photometric Legacy Survey DR8 DECam. We analyse some of the main issues faced in the selection of targets for the DESI BGS, such as star-galaxy separation, contamination by fragmented stars and bright galaxies. Our pipeline utilizes a new way to select BGS galaxies using Gaia photometry and we implement geometrical and photometric masks that reduce the number of spurious objects. The resulting catalogue is cross-matched with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to assess the completeness of the galaxy catalogue and the performance of the target selection. We also validate the clustering of the sources in our BGS catalogue by comparing with mock catalogues and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Finally, the robustness of the BGS selection criteria is assessed by quantifying the dependence of the target galaxy density on imaging and other properties. The largest systematic correlation we find is a 7 per cent suppression of the target density in regions of high stellar density., Comment: 23 pages, 18 Figures

The propagation and evolution of cold galactic winds in galactic haloes is crucial to galaxy formation models. However, modelling of this process in hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation is over-simplified owing to a lack of numerical resolution and often neglects critical physical processes such as hydrodynamic instabilities and thermal conduction. We propose an analytic model, Physically Evolved Winds (PhEW), that calculates the evolution of individual clouds moving supersonically through a uniform ambient medium. Our model reproduces predictions from very high resolution cloud-crushing simulations that include isotropic thermal conduction over a wide range of physical conditions. We discuss the implementation of this model into cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation as a sub-grid prescription to model galactic winds more robustly both physically and numerically., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Kinematic studies of disk galaxies, using individual stars in the Milky Way or statistical studies of global disk kinematics over time, provide insight into how disks form and evolve. We use a high-resolution, cosmological zoom-simulation of a Milky Way-mass disk galaxy h277 to tie together local disk kinematics and the evolution of the disk over time. The present-day stellar age-velocity relationship (AVR) of h277 is nearly identical to that of the analogous solar-neighborhood measurement in the Milky Way. A crucial element of this success is the simulation's dynamically cold multi-phase ISM, which allows young stars to form with a low velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{\mathrm{birth}}$$\sim 6 - 8\ \mathrm{km}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$) at late times. Older stars are born kinematically hotter (i.e., the disk settles over time in an "upside-down" formation scenario), and are subsequently heated after birth. The disk also grows "inside-out", and many of the older stars in the solar neighborhood at $z=0$ are present because of radial mixing. We demonstrate that the evolution of $\sigma_{\mathrm{birth}}$ in h277 can be explained by the same model used to describe the general decrease in velocity dispersion observed in disk galaxies from $z\sim 2-3$ to the present-day, in which the disk evolves in quasi-stable equilibrium and the ISM velocity dispersion decreases over time due to a decreasing gas fraction. Thus, our results tie together local observations of the Milky Way's AVR with observed kinematics of high $z$ disk galaxies., Comment: Submitting to MNRAS. Comments welcomed. This simulation is publicly available. Contact Alyson Brooks for details

We simulate the scientific performance of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) High Latitude Survey (HLS) on dark energy and modified gravity. The 1.6 year HLS Reference survey is currently envisioned to image 2000 deg$^2$ in multiple bands to a depth of $\sim$26.5 in Y, J, H and to cover the same area with slit-less spectroscopy beyond z=3. The combination of deep, multi-band photometry and deep spectroscopy will allow scientists to measure the growth and geometry of the Universe through a variety of cosmological probes (e.g., weak lensing, galaxy clusters, galaxy clustering, BAO, Type Ia supernova) and, equally, it will allow an exquisite control of observational and astrophysical systematic effects. In this paper we explore multi-probe strategies that can be implemented given WFIRST's instrument capabilities. We model cosmological probes individually and jointly and account for correlated systematics and statistical uncertainties due to the higher order moments of the density field. We explore different levels of observational systematics for the WFIRST survey (photo-z and shear calibration) and ultimately run a joint likelihood analysis in N-dim parameter space. We find that the WFIRST reference survey alone (no external data sets) can achieve a standard dark energy FoM of >300 when including all probes. This assumes no information from external data sets and realistic assumptions for systematics. Our study of the HLS reference survey should be seen as part of a future community driven effort to simulate and optimize the science return of WFIRST., Comment: comments welcome