Redshift Bins Research Articles

Euclidpreparation

Photometric redshifts (photo-zs) are one of the main ingredients in the analysis of cosmological probes. Their accuracy particularly affects the results of the analyses of galaxy clustering with photometrically selected galaxies (GCph) and weak lensing. In the next decade, space missions such asEuclidwill collect precise and accurate photometric measurements for millions of galaxies. These data should be complemented with upcoming ground-based observations to derive precise and accurate photo-zs. In this article we explore how the tomographic redshift binning and depth of ground-based observations will affect the cosmological constraints expected from theEuclidmission. We focus on GCphand extend the study to include galaxy-galaxy lensing (GGL). We add a layer of complexity to the analysis by simulating several realistic photo-zdistributions based on theEuclidConsortium Flagship simulation and using a machine learning photo-zalgorithm. We then use the Fisher matrix formalism together with these galaxy samples to study the cosmological constraining power as a function of redshift binning, survey depth, and photo-zaccuracy. We find that bins with an equal width in redshift provide a higher figure of merit (FoM) than equipopulated bins and that increasing the number of redshift bins from ten to 13 improves the FoM by 35% and 15% for GCphand its combination with GGL, respectively. For GCph, an increase in the survey depth provides a higher FoM. However, when we include faint galaxies beyond the limit of the spectroscopic training data, the resulting FoM decreases because of the spurious photo-zs. When combining GCphand GGL, the number density of the sample, which is set by the survey depth, is the main factor driving the variations in the FoM. Adding galaxies at faint magnitudes and high redshift increases the FoM, even when they are beyond the spectroscopic limit, since the number density increase compensates for the photo-zdegradation in this case. We conclude that there is more information that can be extracted beyond the nominal ten tomographic redshift bins ofEuclidand that we should be cautious when adding faint galaxies into our sample since they can degrade the cosmological constraints.

Jetted radio-quiet quasars at z > 5

We report on the JVLA observations of three high-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that have black hole masses estimated to be among the largest known. Two of them, SDSS J0100+2802 and SDSS J0306+1853 at redshift 6.326 and 5.363, respectively, are radio-quiet AGNs according to the classic definition, while the third (B2 1023+25 at z = 5.284) is a powerful blazar. The JVLA data clearly show a radio structure in the first source and a radio emission with a relatively steep radio spectrum in the second one, indicating the presence of a radio jet and a diffuse component. Therefore, being radio-quiet does not exclude the presence of a powerful relativistic jet, which has important consequences on population studies and on the ratio between jetted and non-jetted AGNs. We can estimate the viewing angle of these jets, and this allows us to find, albeit with some uncertainty, the density of black holes with a mass in excess of 1010 M⊙ at high redshifts. We found that their density in jetted AGNs is very large in the redshift bin 5–6 and comparable with the overall AGN population of the same optical luminosity. Jets might thus play a crucial role in the fast formation and evolution of the most massive black holes in the early Universe. They are more common than what is expected from wide radio surveys with milliJansky flux sensitivity. Deeper JVLA or very-long-baseline interferometry observations are key to discovering a possible relativistic jet population hiding in plain sight at very high redshift. The discovery of powerful relativistic jets associated with the most massive black holes in the early Universe revives the question: is the jet instrumental for a rapid growth of the black hole or, instead, is the black hole mass the main driver for the jet formation?

Simultaneous Estimation of Large-scale Structure and Milky Way Dust Extinction from Galaxy Surveys

Abstract The high cosmological precision offered by the next generation of galaxy surveys hinges on improved corrections for Galactic dust extinction. We explore the possibility of estimating both the dust extinction and large-scale structure from a single photometric galaxy survey, making use of the predictable manner in which Milky Way dust affects the measured brightness and colors of galaxies in a given sky location in several redshift bins. To test our method, we use a synthetic catalog from a cosmological simulation designed to model the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. At high Galactic latitude (∣b∣ ≳ 20°) and a resolution of 1° ( 7 ′ ), we predict the uncertainty in the measurement of dust extinction, E(B − V), to be 0.005 mag (0.015 mag). This is similar to the uncertainty of existing dust maps, illustrating the feasibility of our method. Simultaneous estimation of large-scale structure is predicted to recover the galaxy overdensity δ with a precision of ∼0.01 (∼0.05) at 1° ( 7 ′ ) resolution. We also introduce a Bayesian formalism that combines prior information from existing dust maps with the likelihood of Galactic dust extinction determined from the excursion of observed galaxy properties.

A deep radio view of the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate density from a stellar-mass-selected sample in VLA-COSMOS

ABSTRACT We present the 1.4 GHz radio luminosity functions (RLFs) of galaxies in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, measured above and below the 5σ detection threshold, using a Bayesian model-fitting technique. The radio flux densities from Very Large Array (VLA)-COSMOS 3-GHz data are extracted at the position of stellar-mass-selected galaxies. We fit a local RLF model, which is a combination of active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies (SFGs), in 10 redshift bins with a pure luminosity evolution model. Our RLF exceeds previous determinations at low radio luminosities at z < 1.6 with the same radio data, due to our ability to directly constrain the knee and faint-end slope of the RLF. Beyond z ∼ 2, we find that the SFG part of the RLF exhibits a negative evolution (L* moves to lower luminosities) due to the decrease in low stellar-mass galaxies in our sample at high redshifts. From the RLF for SFGs, we determine the evolution in the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD), which we find to be consistent with the established behaviour up to z ∼ 1 using far-infrared data, but exceeds that from the previous radio-based work for the reasons highlighted above. Beyond z ∼ 1.5 the cosmic SFRD declines. We note that the relation between radio luminosity and star formation rate is crucial in measuring the cosmic SFRD from radio data at z > 1.5. We investigate the effects of stellar mass on the total RLF by splitting our sample into low (108.5 ≤ M/M⊙ ≤ 1010) and high ($M\gt 10^{10}\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$) stellar-mass subsets. We find that the SFRD is dominated by sources in the high stellar masses bin, at all redshifts.

Measurement of redshift-space two- and three-point correlation of Lyα absorbers at 1.7 < z < 3.5: implications on evolution of the physical properties of IGM

ABSTRACT We present redshift-space two-point (ξ), three-point (ζ), and reduced three-point (Q) correlation of Lyα absorbers (Voigt profile components having H i column density, NH i > 1013.5 cm−2) over three redshift bins spanning 1.7 < z < 3.5 using high-resolution spectra of 292 quasars. We detect positive ξ up to 8 h−1 cMpc in all three redshift bins. The strongest detection of ζ = 1.81 ± 0.59 (with Q = 0.68 ± 0.23) is in $z$ = 1.7–2.3 bin at 1–2 h−1 cMpc. The measured ξ and ζ values show an increasing trend with NH i, while Q remains relatively independent of NH i. We find ξ and ζ to evolve strongly with redshift. Using simulations, we find that ξ and ζ seen in real space may be strongly amplified by peculiar velocities in redshift space. Simulations suggest that while feedback, thermal and pressure smoothing effects influence the clustering of Lyα absorbers at small scales, i.e. <0.5 h−1 cMpc, the H i photoionization rate (ΓH i) has a strong influence at all scales. The strong redshift evolution of ξ and ζ (for a fixed NH i cut-off) is driven by the redshift evolution of the relationship between NH i and baryon overdensity. Our simulation using best-fitting ΓH i($z$) measurements produces consistent clustering signals with observations at $z$ ∼ 2 but underpredicts the clustering at higher redshifts. One possible remedy is to have higher values of ΓH i at higher redshifts. Alternatively the discrepancy could be related to non-equilibrium and inhomogeneous conditions prevailing during He ii reionization not captured by our simulations.

The large-scale monopole of the power spectrum in a Euclid-like survey: wide-angle effects, lensing, and the ‘finger of the observer’

ABSTRACT Radial redshift-space distortions due to peculiar velocities and other light-cone effects shape the maps we build of the Universe. We address the open question of their impact onto the monopole moment of the galaxy power spectrum, P0(k). Specifically, we use an upgraded numerical implementation of the liger method to generate 140 mock galaxy density fields for a full Euclid-like survey and we measure P0(k) in each of them utilizing a standard estimator. We compare the spectra obtained by turning on and off different effects. Our results show that wide-angle effects due to radial peculiar velocities generate excess power above the level expected within the plane–parallel approximation. They are detectable with a signal-to-noise ratio of 2.7 for $k\lt 0.02\, h$ Mpc−1. Weak-lensing magnification also produces additional power on large scales which, if the current favourite model for the luminosity function of Hα emitters turns out to be realistic, can only be detected with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1.3 at best. Finally, we demonstrate that measuring P0(k) in the standard of rest of the observer generates an additive component reflecting the kinematic dipole overdensity caused by the peculiar velocity. This component is characterized by a damped oscillatory pattern on large scales. We show that this ‘finger of the observer’ effect is detectable in some redshift bins and suggest that its measurement could possibly open new research directions in connection with the determination of the cosmological parameters, the properties of the galaxy population under study, and the dipole itself.

Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam revisits the large-scale environmental dependence on galaxy morphology over 360 deg2 atz= 0.3–0.6

AbstractThis study investigates the role of large-scale environments on the fraction of spiral galaxies at z = 0.3–0.6 sliced to three redshift bins of Δz = 0.1. Here, we sample 276220 massive galaxies in a limited stellar mass of 5 × 1010 solar mass (∼M*) over 360 deg2, as obtained from the Second Public Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). By combining projected two-dimensional density information (Shimakawa et al. 2021, MNRAS, 503, 3896) and the CAMIRA cluster catalog (Oguri et al. 2018, PASJ, 70, S20), we investigate the spiral fraction across large-scale overdensities and in the vicinity of red sequence clusters. We adopt transfer learning to reduce the cost of labeling spiral galaxies significantly and then perform stacking analysis across the entire field to overcome the limitations of sample size. Here we employ a morphological classification catalog by the Galaxy Zoo Hubble (Willett et al., 2017, MNRAS, 464, 4176) to train the deep learning model. Based on 74103 sources classified as spirals, we find moderate morphology–density relations on a 10 comoving Mpc scale, thanks to the wide-field coverage of HSC-SSP. Clear deficits of spiral galaxies have also been confirmed, in and around 1136 red sequence clusters. Furthermore, we verify whether there is a large-scale environmental dependence on rest-frame u − r colors of spiral galaxies; such a tendency was not observed in our sample.

Interacting dark energy from redshift-space galaxy clustering

Interacting dark energy models have been proposed as attractive alternatives to ΛCDM. Forthcoming Stage-IV galaxy clustering surveys will constrain these models, but they require accurate modelling of the galaxy power spectrum multipoles on mildly non-linear scales. In this work we consider a dark scattering model with a simple 1-parameter extension to wCDM — adding only A, which describes a pure momentum exchange between dark energy and dark matter. We then provide a comprehensive comparison of three approaches of modeling non-linearities, while including the effects of this dark sector coupling. We base our modeling of non-linearities on the two most popular perturbation theory approaches: TNS and EFTofLSS. To test the validity and precision of the modelling, we perform an MCMC analysis using simulated data corresponding to a ΛCDM fiducial cosmology and Stage-IV surveys specifications in two redshift bins, z=0.5 and z=1. We find the most complex EFTofLSS-based model studied to be better suited at both, describing the mock data up to smaller scales, and extracting the most information. Using this model, we forecast uncertainties on the dark energy equation of state, w, and on the interaction parameter, A, finding σ_w=0.06 and σ A =1.1 b/GeV for the analysis at z=0.5 and σ w =0.06 and σ A =2.0 b/GeV for the analysis at z=1. In addition, we show that a false detection of exotic dark energy up to 3σ would occur should the non-linear modelling be incorrect, demonstrating the importance of the validation stage for accurate interpretation of measurements.

The evolution of merger fraction of galaxies at z < 0.6 depending on the star formation mode in the AKARI NEP-Wide Field

ABSTRACT We study the galaxy merger fraction and its dependence on star formation mode in the 5.4 deg2 of the North Ecliptic Pole-Wide Field. We select 6352 galaxies with AKARI 9 $\mu$m detections, and identify mergers among them using the Gini coefficient and M20 derived from the Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) optical images. We obtain the total infrared luminosity and star formation rate of galaxies using the spectral energy distribution templates based on one band, AKARI$9\, \mu$m. We classify galaxies into three different star formation modes (i.e. starbursts, main-sequence, and quiescent galaxies) and calculate the merger fractions for each. We find that the merger fractions of galaxies increase with redshift at z < 0.6. The merger fractions of starbursts are higher than those of main-sequence and quiescent galaxies in all redshift bins. We also examine the merger fractions of far-infrared-detected galaxies that have at least one detection from Herschel/Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). We find that Herschel-detected galaxies have higher merger fraction compared to non-Herschel-detected galaxies, and both Herschel-detected and non-Herschel-detected galaxies show clearly different merger fractions depending on the star formation modes.

Self-calibrating Interloper Bias in Spectroscopic Galaxy-clustering Surveys

Abstract Contamination of interloper galaxies due to misidentified emission lines can be a big issue in spectroscopic galaxy-clustering surveys, especially in future high-precision observations. We propose a statistical method based on the cross correlations of the observational data between two redshift bins to efficiently reduce this effect, and it can also derive the interloper fraction f i in a redshift bin with a high level of accuracy. The ratio of cross and autoangular correlation functions or power spectra between redshift bins are suggested to estimate f i, and the key equations are derived for theoretical discussion. In order to explore and prove the feasibility and effectiveness of this method, we also run simulations, generate mock data, and perform cosmological constraints considering systematics based on the observation of China Space Station Telescope. We find that this method can effectively reduce the interloper effect, and accurately constrain the cosmological parameters for f i < 1% ∼ 10%, which is suitable for most future surveys. This method can also be applied to other kinds of galaxy-clustering surveys like line intensity mapping.

A sparse regression approach to modelling the relation between galaxy stellar masses and their host haloes

ABSTRACT Sparse regression algorithms have been proposed as the appropriate framework to model the governing equations of a system from data, without needing prior knowledge of the underlying physics. In this work, we use sparse regression to build an accurate and explainable model of the stellar mass of central galaxies given properties of their host dark matter (DM) halo. Our data set comprises 9521 central galaxies from the EAGLE hydrodynamic simulation. By matching the host haloes to a DM-only simulation, we collect the halo mass and specific angular momentum at present time and for their main progenitors in 10 redshift bins from z = 0 to z = 4. The principal component of our governing equation is a third-order polynomial of the host halo mass, which models the stellar-mass–halo-mass relation. The scatter about this relation is driven by the halo mass evolution and is captured by second- and third-order correlations of the halo mass evolution with the present halo mass. An advantage of sparse regression approaches is that unnecessary terms are removed. Although we include information on halo specific angular momentum, these parameters are discarded by our methodology. This suggests that halo angular momentum has little connection to galaxy formation efficiency. Our model has a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.167log10(M*/M⊙), and accurately reproduces both the stellar mass function and central galaxy correlation function of EAGLE. The methodology appears to be an encouraging approach for populating the haloes of DM-only simulations with galaxies, and we discuss the next steps that are required.

Dark matter properties through cosmic history

We perform the first test of dark matter (DM) stress-energy evolution through cosmic history, using cosmic microwave background measurements supplemented with baryon acoustic oscillation data and the Hubble Space Telescope key project data. We constrain the DM equation of state (EoS) in 8 redshift bins, and its sound speed and (shear) viscosity in 9 redshift bins, finding no convincing evidence for non-$\Lambda$CDM values in any of the redshift bins. Despite this enlarged parameter space, the sound speed and viscosity are constrained relatively well at late times (due to the inclusion of CMB lensing), whereas the EoS is most strongly constrained around recombination. These results constrain for the first time the level of "coldness" required of DM across various cosmological epochs at both the background and perturbative levels. We show that simultaneously allowing time dependence for both the EoS and sound speed parameters shifts the posterior of the DM abundance before recombination to a higher value, while keeping the present day DM abundance similar to the $\Lambda$CDM value. This shifts the posterior for the present day Hubble constant compared to $\Lambda$CDM, suggesting that DM with time-dependent parameters is well-suited to explore possible solutions to persistent tensions within the $\Lambda$CDM model. We perform a detailed comparison with our previous study involving a vanishing sound speed and viscosity using the same datasets in order to explain the physical mechanism behind these shifts.

Environmental effects on AGN activity via extinction-free mid-infrared census

ABSTRACT How does the environment affect active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity? We investigated this question in an extinction-free way by selecting 1120 infrared (IR) galaxies in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Wide field at redshift z ≤ 1.2. A unique feature of the AKARI satellite is its continuous nine-band IR filter coverage, providing us with an unprecedentedly large sample of IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies. By taking advantage of this, for the first time, we explored the AGN activity derived from SED modelling as a function of redshift, luminosity, and environment. We quantified AGN activity in two ways: AGN contribution fraction (ratio of AGN luminosity to the total IR luminosity), and AGN number fraction (ratio of number of AGNs to the total galaxy sample). We found that galaxy environment (normalized local density) does not greatly affect either definitions of AGN activity of our IRG/LIRG samples (log LTIR ≤ 12). However, we found a different behaviour for ULIRGs (log LTIR > 12). At our highest redshift bin (0.7 ≲ z ≲ 1.2), AGN activity increases with denser environments, but at the intermediate redshift bin (0.3 ≲ z ≲ 0.7), the opposite is observed. These results may hint at a different physical mechanism for ULIRGs. The trends are not statistically significant (p ≥ 0.060 at the intermediate redshift bin, and p ≥ 0.139 at the highest redshift bin). Possible different behaviour of ULIRGs is a key direction to explore further with future space missions (e.g. JWST, Euclid, SPHEREx).

The emergence of passive galaxies in the early Universe

The emergence of passive galaxies in the early Universe results from the delicate interplay among the different physical processes responsible for their rapid assembly and the abrupt shut-down of their star formation activity. Investigating the individual properties and demographics of early passive galaxies improves our understanding of these mechanisms. In this work we present a follow-up analysis of the z > 3 passive galaxy candidates selected by Merlin et al. (2019, MNRAS, 490, 3309) in the CANDELS fields. We begin by first confirming the accuracy of their passive classification by exploiting their sub-millimetre emission to demonstrate the lack of ongoing star formation. Using archival ALMA observations we are able to confirm at least 61% of the observed candidates as passive. While the remainder lack sufficiently deep data for confirmation, we are able to validate the entire sample in a statistical sense. We then estimate the stellar mass function (SMF) of all 101 passive candidates in three redshift bins from z = 5 to z = 3. We adopt a stepwise approach that has the advantage of taking into account photometric errors, mass and selection completeness issues, as well as the Eddington bias, without any a posteriori correction. We observe a pronounced evolution in the SMF around z ∼ 4, indicating that we are witnessing the emergence of the passive population at this epoch. Massive (M > 1011 M⊙) passive galaxies, only accounting for a small (< 10%) fraction of galaxies at z > 4, become dominant at later epochs. Thanks to a combination of photometric quality, sample selection, and methodology, we overall find a higher density of passive galaxies than in previous works. The comparison with theoretical predictions, despite a qualitative agreement (at least for some of the models considered), denotes a still incomplete understanding of the physical processes responsible for the formation of these galaxies. Finally, we extrapolate our results to predict the number of early passive galaxies expected in surveys carried out with future facilities.

Future Constraints on the Reionization History and the Ionizing Sources from Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Abstract We forecast the reionization history constraints, inferred from Lyα damping wing absorption features, for a future sample of ∼20 z ≥ 6 gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. We describe each afterglow spectrum by a three-parameter model. First, L characterizes the size of the ionized region (the “bubble size”) around a GRB host halo. Second, 〈x H i 〉 is the volume-averaged neutral fraction outside of the ionized bubble around the GRB, which is approximated as spatially uniform. Finally, N H i denotes the column density of a local damped Lyα absorber (DLA) associated with the GRB host galaxy. The size distribution of ionized regions is extracted from a numerical simulation of reionization and evolves strongly across the epoch of reionization (EoR). The model DLA column densities follow the empirical distribution determined from current GRB afterglow spectra. We use a Fisher matrix formalism to forecast the 〈x H i (z)〉 constraints that can be obtained from follow-up spectroscopy of afterglows with S/N = 20 per R = 3000 resolution element at the continuum. We find that the neutral fraction may be determined to better than 10%–15% (1σ) accuracy from this data across multiple independent redshift bins at z ∼ 6–10, spanning much of the EoR, although the precision degrades somewhat near the end of reionization. A more futuristic survey with 80 GRB afterglows at z ≥ 6 can improve the precision here by a factor of 2 and extend measurements out to z ∼ 14. We further discuss how these constraints may be combined with estimates of the escape fraction of ionizing photons derived from the DLA column density distribution toward GRBs extracted at slightly lower redshift, z ∼ 5. This combination will help in testing whether we have an accurate census of the sources that reionized the universe.

Stacked CMB lensing and ISW signals around superstructures in the DESI Legacy Survey

ABSTRACTThe imprints of large-scale structures on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) can be studied via the CMB lensing and Integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) signals. In particular, the stacked ISW signal around supervoids has been claimed in several works to be anomalously high. In this study, we find cluster and void superstructures using four tomographic redshift bins with 0 < z < 0.8 from the DESI Legacy Survey and measure the stacked CMB lensing and ISW signals around them. To compare our measurements with ΛCDM model predictions, we construct a mock catalogue with matched galaxy number density and bias and apply the same photo-z uncertainty as the data. The consistency between the mock and the data is verified via the stacked galaxy density profiles around the superstructures and their quantity. The corresponding lensing convergence and ISW maps are then constructed and compared. The stacked lensing signal agrees with data well except at the highest redshift bin in density peaks, where the mock prediction is significantly higher, by approximately a factor of 1.3. The stacked ISW signal is generally consistent with the mock prediction. We do not obtain a significant signal from voids, AISW = −0.10 ± 0.69, and the signal from clusters, AISW = 1.52 ± 0.72, is at best weakly detected. However, these results are strongly inconsistent with previous claims of ISW signals at many times the level of the ΛCDM prediction. We discuss the comparison of our results with past work in this area and investigate possible explanations for this discrepancy.

Correcting correlation functions for redshift-dependent interloper contamination

ABSTRACT The construction of catalogues of a particular type of galaxy can be complicated by interlopers contaminating the sample. In spectroscopic galaxy surveys this can be due to the misclassification of an emission line; for example in the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) low-redshift [O ii] emitters may make up a few per cent of the observed Ly α emitter (LAE) sample. The presence of contaminants affects the measured correlation functions and power spectra. Previous attempts to deal with this using the cross-correlation function have assumed sources at a fixed redshift, or not modelled evolution within the adopted redshift bins. However, in spectroscopic surveys like HETDEX, where the contamination fraction is likely to be redshift dependent, the observed clustering of misclassified sources will appear to evolve strongly due to projection effects, even if their true clustering does not. We present a practical method for accounting for the presence of contaminants with redshift-dependent contamination fractions and projected clustering. We show using mock catalogues that our method, unlike existing approaches, yields unbiased clustering measurements from the upcoming HETDEX survey in scenarios with redshift-dependent contamination fractions within the redshift bins used. We show our method returns autocorrelation functions with systematic biases much smaller than the statistical noise for samples with at least as high as 7 per cent contamination. We also present and test a method for fitting for the redshift-dependent interloper fraction using the LAE–[O ii] galaxy cross-correlation function, which gives less biased results than assuming a single interloper fraction for the whole sample.

A consistent and robust measurement of the thermal state of the IGM at 2 ≤ z ≤ 4 from a large sample of Ly α forest spectra: evidence for late and rapid He ii reionization

ABSTRACT We characterize the thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in 10 redshift bins in the range 2 ≤ z ≤ 4 with a sample of 103 high-resolution, high S/N Ly α forest spectra using four different flux distribution statistics. Our measurements are calibrated with mock spectra from a large suite of hydrodynamical simulations post-processed with our thermal IGM evolution code cite, finely sampling amplitude, and slope of the expected temperature–density relation. The thermal parameters inferred from our measurements of the flux power spectrum, Doppler parameter distribution, as well as wavelet and curvature statistics agree well within their respective errors and all clearly show the peak in temperature and minimum in slope of the temperature density relation expected from He ii reionization. Combining our measurements from the different flux statistics gives T0 = (14 750 ± 1322) K for the peak temperature at mean density and a corresponding minimum slope γ = 1.225 ± 0.120. The peak in the temperature evolution occurs around z ≈ 3, in agreement with previous measurements that had suggested the presence of such a peak, albeit with a large scatter. Using cite, we also calculate the thermal state of the IGM predicted by five widely used (spatially homogeneous) UV-background models. The rather rapid thermal evolution inferred by our measurements is well reproduced by two of the models, if we assume (physically well motivated) non-equilibrium evolution with photoheating rates that are reduced by a moderate factor of ∼0.7–0.8. The other three models predict He ii reionization to be more extended with a higher temperature peak occurring somewhat earlier than our measurements suggest.

The GOGREEN survey: dependence of galaxy properties on halo mass at z > 1 and implications for environmental quenching

ABSTRACT We use photometric redshifts and statistical background subtraction to measure stellar mass functions in galaxy group-mass (4.5−8 × 1013 M⊙) haloes at 1 < z < 1.5. Groups are selected from COSMOS and SXDF, based on X-ray imaging and sparse spectroscopy. Stellar mass (Mstellar) functions are computed for quiescent and star-forming galaxies separately, based on their rest-frame UVJ colours. From these we compute the quiescent fraction and quiescent fraction excess (QFE) relative to the field as a function of Mstellar. QFE increases with Mstellar, similar to more massive clusters at 1 < z < 1.5. This contrasts with the apparent separability of Mstellar and environmental factors on galaxy quiescent fractions at z ∼ 0. We then compare our results with higher mass clusters at 1 < z < 1.5 and lower redshifts. We find a strong QFE dependence on halo mass at fixed Mstellar; well fit by a logarithmic slope of d(QFE)/dlog (Mhalo) ∼ 0.24 ± 0.04 for all Mstellar and redshift bins. This dependence is in remarkably good qualitative agreement with the hydrodynamic simulation bahamas, but contradicts the observed dependence of QFE on Mstellar. We interpret the results using two toy models: one where a time delay until rapid (instantaneous) quenching begins upon accretion to the main progenitor (‘no pre-processing’) and one where it starts upon first becoming a satellite (‘pre-processing’). Delay times appear to be halo mass-dependent, with a significantly stronger dependence required without pre-processing. We conclude that our results support models in which environmental quenching begins in low-mass (<1014M⊙) haloes at z > 1.

Future radio continuum cosmology clustering surveys

ABSTRACT The use of continuum emission radio galaxies as cosmological tracers of the large-scale structure will soon move into a new phase. Upcoming surveys from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), MeerKAT, and the Square Kilometre Array project (SKA) will survey the entire available sky down to an $\sim 100\, \mu$Jy flux limit, increasing the number of detected extra-galactic radio sources by several orders of magnitude. External data and machine learning algorithms will also enable some low-resolution radial selection (photometric redshift binning) of the sample, increasing the cosmological utility of the sample observed. In this paper, we discuss the flux limit required to detect enough galaxies to decrease the shot-noise term in the error to be 10 per cent of the total. We show how future surveys of this type will be limited by available technology. The confusion generated by the intrinsic sizes of galaxies may have the consequence that surveys of this type eventually reach a hard flux limit of ∼100 nJy, as is predicted by the current modelling of AGN sizes by simulations such as the Tiered Radio Extragalactic Continuum Simulation (T-RECS). Finally, when considering the multitracer approach, where galaxies are split by type to measure some bias ratio, we find that there are not enough AGN present to achieve a reasonable level of shot noise for this kind of measurement.