CODEX weak lensing: Concentration of galaxy clusters at z ~ 0.5
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 468:1 (2017) 1092-1116
Abstract:
We present a stacked weak lensing analysis of 27 richness selected galaxy clusters at $0.40 \leqslant z \leqslant 0.62$ in the CODEX survey. The fields were observed in 5 bands with the CFHT. We measure the stacked surface mass density profile with a $14\sigma$ significance in the radial range $0.1 < R\ Mpc\ h^{-1} < 2.5$. The profile is well described by the halo model, with the main halo term following an NFW profile and including the off-centring effect. We select the background sample using a conservative colour-magnitude method to reduce the potential systematic errors and contamination by cluster member galaxies. We perform a Bayesian analysis for the stacked profile and constrain the best-fit NFW parameters $M_{200c} = 6.6^{+1.0}_{-0.8} \times 10^{14} h^{-1} M_{\odot}$ and $c_{200c} = 3.7^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$. The off-centring effect was modelled based on previous observational results found for redMaPPer SDSS clusters. Our constraints on $M_{200c}$ and $c_{200c}$ allow us to investigate the consistency with numerical predictions and select a concentration-mass relation to describe the high richness CODEX sample. Comparing our best-fit values for $M_{200c}$ and $c_{200c}$ with other observational surveys at different redshifts, we find no evidence for evolution in the concentration-mass relation, though it could be mitigated by particular selection functions. Similar to previous studies investigating the X-ray luminosity-mass relation, our data suggests a lower evolution than expected from self-similarity.Measuring light echoes in NGC 4051
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 467:4 (2017) 3924-3933
Abstract:
Five archived X-ray observations of NGC 4051, taken using the NuSTAR observatory, have been analysed, revealing lags between flux variations in bands covering a wide range of X-ray photon energy. In all pairs of bands compared, the harder band consistently lags the softer band by at least 1000s, at temporal frequencies ~5E-5 Hz. In addition, soft-band lags up to 400s are measured at frequencies ~2E-4 Hz. Light echos from an excess of soft band emission in the inner accretion disk cannot explain the lags in these data, as they are seen in cross-correlations with energy bands where the softer band is expected to have no contribution from reflection. The basic properties of the time delays have been parameterised by fitting a top hat response function that varies with photon energy, taking fully into account the covariance between measured time lag values. The low-frequency hard-band lags and the transition to soft-band lags are consistent with time lags arising as reverberation delays from circumnuclear scattering of X-rays, although greater model complexity is required to explain the entire spectrum of lags. The scattered fraction increases with increasing photon energy as expected, and the scattered fraction is high, indicating the reprocessor to have a global covering fraction ~50% around the continuum source. Circumnuclear material, possibly associated with a disk wind at a few hundred gravitational radii from the primary X-ray source, may provide suitable reprocessing.Galaxy-halo alignments in the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulation
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (2017)
Abstract:
Intrinsic alignments of galaxies are a significant astrophysical systematic affecting cosmological constraints from weak gravitational lensing. Obtaining numerical predictions from hydrodynamical simulations of expected survey volumes is expensive, and a cheaper alternative relies on populating large dark matter-only simulations with accurate models of alignments calibrated on smaller hydrodynamical runs. This requires connecting the shapes and orientations of galaxies to those of dark matter halos and to the large-scale structure. In this paper, we characterise galaxy-halo alignments in the Horizon-AGN cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. We compare the shapes and orientations of galaxies in the redshift range $0Lensing is low: Cosmology, galaxy formation, or new physics?
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 467:3 (2017) 3024-3047
Abstract:
We present high signal-to-noise galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements of the BOSS CMASS sample using 250 square degrees of weak lensing data from CFHTLenS and CS82. We compare this signal with predictions from mock catalogs trained to match observables including the stellar mass function and the projected and two dimensional clustering of CMASS. We show that the clustering of CMASS, together with standard models of the galaxy-halo connection, robustly predicts a lensing signal that is 20-40% larger than observed. Detailed tests show that our results are robust to a variety of systematic effects. Lowering the value of $S_{\rm 8}=\sigma_{\rm 8} \sqrt{\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3}$ compared to Planck2015 reconciles the lensing with clustering. However, given the scale of our measurement ($r<10$ $h^{-1}$ Mpc), other effects may also be at play and need to be taken into consideration. We explore the impact of baryon physics, assembly bias, massive neutrinos, and modifications to general relativity on $\Delta\Sigma$ and show that several of these effects may be non-negligible given the precision of our measurement. Disentangling cosmological effects from the details of the galaxy-halo connection, the effects of baryons, and massive neutrinos, is the next challenge facing joint lensing and clustering analyses. This is especially true in the context of large galaxy samples from Baryon Acoustic Oscillation surveys with precise measurements but complex selection functions.GMRT 610-MHz observations of the faint radio source population – and what these tell us about the higher radio-frequency sky
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 464:3 (2017) 3357-3368