Cosmology

Abstract:

We outline the prospects for performing pioneering radio weak gravitational lensing analyses using observations from a potential forthcoming JVLA Sky Survey program. A large-scale survey with the JVLA can offer interesting and unique opportunities for performing weak lensing studies in the radio band, a field which has until now been the preserve of optical telescopes. In particular, the JVLA has the capacity for large, deep radio surveys with relatively high angular resolution, which are the key characteristics required for a successful weak lensing study. We highlight the potential advantages and unique aspects of performing weak lensing in the radio band. In particular, the inclusion of continuum polarisation information can greatly reduce noise in weak lensing reconstructions and can also remove the effects of intrinsic galaxy alignments, the key astrophysical systematic effect that limits weak lensing at all wavelengths. We identify a VLASS "deep fields" program (total area ~10-20 square degs), to be conducted at L-band and with high-resolution (A-array configuration), as the optimal survey strategy from the point of view of weak lensing science. Such a survey will build on the unique strengths of the JVLA and will remain unsurpassed in terms of its combination of resolution and sensitivity until the advent of the Square Kilometre Array. We identify the best fields on the JVLA-accessible sky from the point of view of overlapping with existing deep optical and near infra-red data which will provide crucial redshift information and facilitate a host of additional compelling multi-wavelength science.

Abstract:

Upon its completion, the Herschel Astrophysics Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) will be the largest sub-millimetre survey to date, detecting close to half-a-million sources. It will only be possible to measure spectroscopic redshifts for a small fraction of these sources. However, if the rest-frame spectral energy distribution (SED) of a typical H-ATLAS source is known, this SED and the observed Herschel fluxes can be used to estimate the redshifts of the H-ATLAS sources without spectroscopic redshifts. In this paper, we use a sub-set of 40 H-ATLAS sources with previously measured redshifts in the range 0.5 < z < 4.2 to derive a suitable average template for high-redshift H-ATLAS sources. We find that a template with two dust components (Tc= 23.9K, Th= 46.9K and ratio of mass of cold dust to mass of warm dust of 30.1) provides a good fit to the rest-frame fluxes of the sources in our calibration sample. We use a jackknife technique to estimate the accuracy of the redshifts estimated with this template, finding a root mean square of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.26. For sources for which there is prior information that they lie at z > 1, we estimate that the rms of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.12. We have used this template to estimate the redshift distribution for the sources detected in the H-ATLAS equatorial fields, finding a bimodal distribution with a mean redshift of 1.2, 1.9 and 2.5 for 250, 350 and 500 μm selected sources, respectively. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

The kinematic analysis of dark matter and hydrodynamical simulations suggests that the vorticity in large-scale structure is mostly confined to, and predominantly aligned with their filaments, with an excess of probability of 20 per cent to have the angle between vorticity and filaments direction lower than 60 degrees relative to random orientations. The cross sections of these filaments are typically partitioned into four quadrants with opposite vorticity sign, arising from multiple flows, originating from neighbouring walls. The spins of halos embedded within these filaments are consistently aligned with this vorticity for any halo mass, with a stronger alignment for the most massive structures up to an excess of probability of 165 per cent. On large scales, adiabatic/cooling hydrodynamical simulations display the same vorticity in the gas as in the dark matter. The global geometry of the flow within the cosmic web is therefore qualitatively consistent with a spin acquisition for smaller halos induced by this large-scale coherence, as argued in Codis et al. (2012). In effect, secondary anisotropic infall (originating from the vortex-rich filament within which these lower-mass halos form) dominates the angular momentum budget of these halos. The transition mass from alignment to orthogonality is related to the size of a given multi-flow region with a given polarity. This transition may be reconciled with the standard tidal torque theory if the latter is augmented so as to account for the larger scale anisotropic environment of walls and filaments.