Cosmology

Abstract:

Theories of gravity that obey the Weak Equivalence Principle have the same Parametrised Post-Newtonian parameter $\gamma$ for all particles at all energies. The large Shapiro time delays of extragalactic sources allow us to put tight constraints on differences in $\gamma$ between photons of different frequencies from spectral lag data, since a non-zero $\Delta \gamma$ would result in a frequency-dependent arrival time. The majority of previous constraints have assumed that the Shapiro time delay is dominated by a few local massive objects, although this is a poor approximation for distant sources. In this work we consider the cosmological context of these sources by developing a source-by-source, Monte Carlo-based forward model for the Shapiro time delays by combining constrained realisations of the local density field using the Bayesian origin reconstruction from galaxies algorithm with unconstrained large-scale modes. Propagating uncertainties in the density field reconstruction and marginalising over an empirical model describing other contributions to the time delay, we use spectral lag data of Gamma Ray Bursts from the BATSE satellite to constrain $\Delta \gamma < 2.1 \times 10^{-15}$ at $1 \sigma$ confidence between photon energies of $25 {\rm \, keV}$ and $325 {\rm \, keV}$.

Abstract:

The Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) is an ongoing high-completeness, deep spectroscopic survey of ∼60 000 galaxies to Y < 21.2 mag, over ∼6 deg2 in three well-studied deep extragalactic fields: D10 (COSMOS), D02 (XMMLSS), and D03 (ECDFS). Numerous DEVILS projects all require consistent, uniformly derived and state-of-the-art photometric data with which to measure galaxy properties. Existing photometric catalogues in these regions either use varied photometric measurement techniques for different facilities/wavelengths leading to inconsistencies, older imaging data and/or rely on source detection and photometry techniques with known problems. Here, we use the PROFOUND image analysis package and state-of-the-art imaging data sets (including Subaru-HSC, VST-VOICE, VISTA-VIDEO, and UltraVISTA-DR4) to derive matched-source photometry in 22 bands from the FUV to 500 μm. This photometry is found to be consistent, or better, in colour analysis to previous approaches using fixed-size apertures (which are specifically tuned to derive colours), but produces superior total source photometry, essential for the derivation of stellar masses, star formation rates, star formation histories, etc. Our photometric catalogue is described in detail and, after internal DEVILS team projects, will be publicly released for use by the broader scientific community.