The Fornax Cluster VLT Spectroscopic Survey

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 657 (2022) a93

Authors:

Avinash Chaturvedi, Michael Hilker, Michele Cantiello, Nicola R Napolitano, Glenn van de Ven, Chiara Spiniello, Katja Fahrion, Maurizio Paolillo, Massimiliano Gatto, Thomas Puzia

Galaxy populations in the Hydra I cluster from the VEGAS survey

Astronomy & Astrophysics EDP Sciences 659 (2021) A92-A92

Authors:

Antonio La Marca, Reynier Peletier, Enrichetta Iodice, Maurizio Paolillo, Nelvy Choque Challapa, Aku Venhola, Duncan A Forbes, Michele Cantiello, Michael Hilker, Marina Rejkuba, Magda Arnaboldi, Marilena Spavone, Giuseppe D’Ago, Maria Angela Raj, Rossella Ragusa, Marco Mirabile, Roberto Rampazzo, Chiara Spiniello, Steffen Mieske, Pietro Schipani

Abstract:

At ~50 Mpc, the Hydra I cluster of galaxies is among the closest cluster in the z=0 Universe, and an ideal environment to study dwarf galaxy properties in a cluster environment. We exploit deep imaging data of the Hydra I cluster to construct a new photometric catalog of dwarf galaxies in the cluster core, which is then used to derive properties of the Hydra I cluster dwarf galaxies population as well as to compare with other clusters. Moreover, we investigate the dependency of dwarf galaxy properties on their surrounding environment. The new Hydra I dwarf catalog contains 317 galaxies with luminosity between -18.5<$M_r$<-11.5 mag, a semi-major axis larger than ~200 pc (a=0.84 arcsec), of which 202 are new detections, previously unknown dwarf galaxies in the Hydra I central region. We estimate that our detection efficiency reaches 50% at the limiting magnitude $M_r$=-11.5 mag, and at the mean effective surface brightness $\overline{\mu}_{e,r}$=26.5 mag/$arcsec^2$. We present the standard scaling relations for dwarf galaxies and compare them with other nearby clusters. We find that there are no observational differences for dwarfs scaling relations in clusters of different sizes. We study the spatial distribution of galaxies, finding evidence for the presence of substructures within half the virial radius. We also find that mid- and high-luminosity dwarfs ($M_r$<-14.5 mag) become on average redder toward the cluster center, and that they have a mild increase in $R_e$ with increasing clustercentric distance, similar to what is observed for the Fornax cluster. No clear clustercentric trends are reported with surface brightness and S\'ersic index. Considering galaxies in the same magnitude-bins, we find that for high and mid-luminosity dwarfs ($M_r$<-13.5 mag) the g-r color is redder for the brighter surface brightness and higher S\'ersic n index objects.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 25 pages, 21 figure

Predicting the water content of interstellar objects from galactic star formation histories

Astrophysical Journal Letters IOP Science 294 (2021) 1

Authors:

Christopher Lintott, Michele Bannister, Ted Mackereth

Abstract:

Planetesimals inevitably bear the signatures of their natal environment, preserving in their composition a record of the metallicity of their system's original gas and dust, albeit one altered by the formation processes. When planetesimals are dispersed from their system of origin, this record is carried with them. As each star is likely to contribute at least 1012 interstellar objects (ISOs), the Galaxy's drifting population of ISOs provides an overview of the properties of its stellar population through time. Using the EAGLE cosmological simulations and models of protoplanetary formation, our modeling predicts an ISO population with a bimodal distribution in their water mass fraction: objects formed in low-metallicity, typically older, systems have a higher water fraction than their counterparts formed in high-metallicity protoplanetary disks, and these water-rich objects comprise the majority of the population. Both detected ISOs seem to belong to the lower water fraction population; these results suggest they come from recently formed systems. We show that the population of ISOs in galaxies with different star formation histories will have different proportions of objects with high and low water fractions. This work suggests that it is possible that the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time will detect a large enough population of ISOs to place useful constraints on models of protoplanetary disks, as well as galactic structure and evolution.

Building high accuracy emulators for scientific simulations with deep neural architecture search

Machine Learning: Science and Technology IOP Science 3:1 (2021) 015013

Authors:

MF Kasim, D Watson-Parris, L Deaconu, S Oliver, Peter Hatfield, DH Froula, Gianluca Gregori, M Jarvis, Samar Khatiwala, J Korenaga, Jonas Topp-Mugglestone, E Viezzer, Sam Vinko

Abstract:

Computer simulations are invaluable tools for scientific discovery. However, accurate simulations are often slow to execute, which limits their applicability to extensive parameter exploration, large-scale data analysis, and uncertainty quantification. A promising route to accelerate simulations by building fast emulators with machine learning requires large training datasets, which can be prohibitively expensive to obtain with slow simulations. Here we present a method based on neural architecture search to build accurate emulators even with a limited number of training data. The method successfully emulates simulations in 10 scientific cases including astrophysics, climate science, biogeochemistry, high energy density physics, fusion energy, and seismology, using the same super-architecture, algorithm, and hyperparameters. Our approach also inherently provides emulator uncertainty estimation, adding further confidence in their use. We anticipate this work will accelerate research involving expensive simulations, allow more extensive parameters exploration, and enable new, previously unfeasible computational discovery.

The Simons Observatory: a new open-source power spectrum pipeline applied to the Planck legacy data

(2021)

Authors:

Zack Li, Thibaut Louis, Erminia Calabrese, Hidde Jense, David Alonso, J Richard Bond, Steve K Choi, Jo Dunkley, Giulio Fabbian, Xavier Garrido, Andrew H Jaffe, Mathew S Madhavacheril, P Daniel Meerburg, Umberto Natale, Frank J Qu