Astronomical instrumentation

Abstract:

We describe an instrument concept that will provide simultaneous spectra for a million spatial samples on the sky. With the proposed field of view and spectral resolution, it will be able to measure redshifts and line strengths for around 2-4000 z~3-7 galaxies in a 16 night campaign. The main science driver is to obtain a complete census of the star formation properties of galaxies with 2.5

Abstract:

We have calculated the two-point correlation functions in redshift space, Ζ (σ, π), for galaxies of different spectral types in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. Using these correlation functions, we are able to estimate values of the linear redshift-space distortion parameter, β ≡ Ωm^0.6/b, the pairwise velocity dispersion, a, and the real-space correlation function, Ζ(r), for galaxies with both relatively low star formation rates (for which the present rate of star formation is less than 10 per cent of its past averaged value) and galaxies with higher current star formation activity. At small separations, the real-space clustering of passive galaxies is very much stronger than that of the more actively star-forming galaxies; the correlation-function slopes are, respectively, 1.93 and 1.50, and the relative bias between the two classes is a declining function of scale. On scales larger than 10 h^-1 Mpc, there is evidence that the relative bias tends to a constant, b passive/bactive ≃ 1. This consistent with the similar degrees of redshift-space distortions seen in the correlation functions of the two classes - the contours of Ζ(σ, π) require β active = 0.49 ± 0.13 and βpassive = 0-48 ± 0.14. The pairwise velocity dispersion is highly correlated with β. Despite this, a significant difference is seen between the two classes. Over the range 820 h^-1 Mpc, the pairwise velocity dispersion has mean values of 416 ± 76 and 612 ± 92 km s^-1 for the active and passive galaxy samples, respectively. This is consistent with the expectation from morphological segregation, in which passively evolving galaxies preferentially inhabit the cores of high-mass virialized regions.

Abstract:

We have tested Very Small Array (VSA) observations of three regions of sky for the presence of non-Gaussianity, using high-order cumulants, Minkowski functionals, a wavelet-based test and a Bayesian joint power spectrum/non-Gaussianity analysis. We find the data from two regions to be consistent with Gaussianity. In the third region, we obtain a 96.7% detection of non-Gaussianity using the wavelet test. We perform simulations to characterise the tests, and conclude that this is consistent with expected residual point source contamination. There is therefore no evidence that this detection is of cosmological origin. Our simulations show that the tests would be sensitive to any residual point sources above the data's source subtraction level of 20 mJy. The tests are also sensitive to cosmic string networks at an rms fluctuation level of $105 μK$ (i.e. equivalent to the best-fit observed value). They are not sensitive to string-induced fluctuations if an equal rms of Gaussian CDM fluctuations is added, thereby reducing the fluctuations due to the strings network to $74 μK$ rms . We especially highlight the usefulness of non-Gaussianity testing in eliminating systematic effects from our data.