The Dark Energy Survey Image Processing Pipeline Morganson, E.; Gruendl, R. A.; Menanteau, F. ...
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,
07/2018, Volume:
130, Issue:
989
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a five-year optical imaging campaign with the goal of understanding the origin of cosmic acceleration. DES performs a ∼5000 deg2 survey of the southern sky in five ...optical bands (g, r, i, z, Y) to a depth of ∼24th magnitude. Contemporaneously, DES performs a deep, time-domain survey in four optical bands (g, r, i, z) over ∼27 deg2. DES exposures are processed nightly with an evolving data reduction pipeline and evaluated for image quality to determine if they need to be retaken. Difference imaging and transient source detection are also performed in the time domain component nightly. On a bi-annual basis, DES exposures are reprocessed with a refined pipeline and coadded to maximize imaging depth. Here we describe the DES image processing pipeline in support of DES science, as a reference for users of archival DES data, and as a guide for future astronomical surveys.
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The present study reports the discovery of Sun-like stars, namely main-sequence stars with T sub( eff), log g and rotation periods P sub( rot) similar to solar values, presenting evidence of surface ...differential rotation (DR). An autocorrelation of the time series was used to select stars presenting photometric signal stability from a sample of 881 stars with light curves collected by the Kepler space-borne telescope, in which we have identified 17 stars with stable signals. A simple two-spot model together with a Bayesian information criterion were applied to these stars in the search for indications of DR; in addition, for all 17 stars, it was possible to compute the spot rotation period P, the mean values of the individual spot rotation periods and their respective colatitudes, and the relative amplitude of the DR.
We describe perturbation theory (PT) models of galaxy bias for applications to photometric galaxy surveys. We model the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-matter correlation functions in configuration space ...and validate against measurements from mock catalogs designed for the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We find that an effective PT model with five galaxy bias parameters provides a good description of the 3D correlation functions above scales of 4 Mpc /h and z < 1 . Our tests show that at the projected precision of the DES Year 3 analysis, two of the nonlinear bias parameters can be fixed to their coevolution values, and a third (the k2 term for higher derivative bias) set to zero. The agreement is typically at the 2% level over scales of interest, which is the statistical uncertainty of our simulation measurements. To achieve this level of agreement, our fiducial model requires using the full nonlinear matter power spectrum (rather than the one-loop PT one). We also measure the relationship between the nonlinear and linear bias parameters and compare them to their expected coevolution values. We use these tests to motivate the galaxy bias model and scale cuts for the cosmological analysis of the Dark Energy Survey; our conclusions are generally applicable to all photometric surveys.
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ABSTRACT We analyzed the host stars of the present sample of confirmed planets detected by Kepler and Kepler Objects of Interest to compute new photometric rotation periods and to study the behavior ...of their angular momentum. Lomb-Scargle periodograms and wavelet maps were computed for 3807 stars. For 540 of these stars, we were able to detect rotational modulation of the light curves at a significance level of greater than 99%. For 63 of these 540 stars, no rotation measurements were previously available in the literature. According to the published masses and evolutionary tracks of the stars in this sample, the sample is composed of M- to F-type stars (with masses of 0.48-1.53 M ) with rotation periods that span a range of 2-89 days. These periods exhibit an excellent agreement with those previously reported (for the stars for which such values are available), and the observed rotational period distribution strongly agrees with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, for the 540 sources considered here, the stellar angular momentum provides an important test of Kraft's relation based on the photometric rotation periods. Finally, this study directly contributes in a direct approach to our understanding of how angular momentum is distributed between the host star and its (detected) planetary system; the role of angular momentum exchange in such systems is an unavoidable piece of the stellar rotation puzzle.
Context. For six years the Convection, Rotation, and planetary Transits (CoRoT) space mission has been acquiring photometric data from more than 100 000 point sources towards and directly opposite ...the inner and outer regions of the Galaxy. The high temporal resolution of the CoRoT data, combined with the wide time span of the observations, enabled the study of short- and long-time variations in unprecedented detail. Aims. The aim of this work is to study the variability and evolutionary behaviour of M-giant stars using CoRot data. Methods. From the initial sample of 2534 stars classified as M giants in the CoRoT databases, we selected 1428 targets that exhibit well defined variability, by visual inspection. Then, we defined three catalogues: C1 – stars with Teff< 4200 K and LCs displaying semi-sinusoidal signatures; C2 – rotating variable candidates with Teff> 4200 K; C3 – long-period variable candidates (with LCs showing a variability period up to the total time span of the observations). The variability period and amplitude of C1 stars were computed using Lomb-Scargle and harmonic fit methods. Finally, we used C1 and C3 stars to study the variability behaviour of M-giant stars. Results. The trends found in the V−I vs. J−K colour–colour diagram are in agreement with standard empirical calibrations for M giants. The sources located towards the inner regions of the Galaxy are distributed throughout the diagram, while the majority of the stars towards the outer regions of the Galaxy are spread between the calibrations of M giants and the predicted position for carbon stars. The stars classified as supergiants follow a different sequence from the one found for giant stars. We also performed a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test of the period and amplitude of stars towards the inner and outer regions of the Galaxy. We obtained a low probability that the two samples came from the same parent distribution. The observed behaviour of the period-amplitude and period-effective temperature (Teff) diagrams are, in general, in agreement with those found for Kepler sources and ground based photometry, with pulsation being the dominant cause responsible for the observed modulation. We also conclude that short-time variations on M-giant stars do not exist or are very rare, and the few cases we found are possibly related to biases or background stars.
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Context.
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are useful distance indicators in cosmology, provided their luminosity is standardized by applying empirical corrections based on light-curve properties. One ...factor behind these corrections is dust extinction, which is accounted for in the color–luminosity relation of the standardization. This relation is usually assumed to be universal, which can potentially introduce systematics into the standardization. The “mass step” observed for SN Ia Hubble residuals has been suggested as one such systematic.
Aims.
We seek to obtain a more complete view of dust attenuation properties for a sample of 162 SN Ia host galaxies and to probe their link to the mass step.
Methods.
We inferred attenuation laws toward hosts from both global and local (4 kpc) Dark Energy Survey photometry and composite stellar population model fits.
Results.
We recovered a relation between the optical depth and the attenuation slope, best explained by differing star-to-dust geometry for different galaxy orientations, which is significantly different from the optical depth and extinction slope relation observed directly for SNe. We obtain a large variation of attenuation slopes and confirm these change with host properties, such as the stellar mass and age, meaning a universal SN Ia correction should ideally not be assumed. Analyzing the cosmological standardization, we find evidence for a mass step and a two-dimensional “dust step”, both more pronounced for red SNe. Although comparable, the two steps are not found to be completely analogous.
Conclusions.
We conclude that host galaxy dust data cannot fully account for the mass step, using either an alternative SN standardization with extinction proxied by host attenuation or a dust-step approach.
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Weak lensing by large-scale structure is a powerful probe of cosmology and of the dark universe. This cosmic shear technique relies on the accurate measurement of the shapes and redshifts of ...background galaxies and requires precise control of systematic errors. Monte Carlo control loops (MCCL) is a forward modeling method designed to tackle this problem. It relies on the ultra fast image generator (UFig) to produce simulated images tuned to match the target data statistically, followed by calibrations and tolerance loops. We present the first end-to-end application of this method, on the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 wide field imaging data. We simultaneously measure the shear power spectrum Cℓ and the redshift distribution n(z) of the background galaxy sample. The method includes maps of the systematic sources, point spread function (PSF), an approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) inference of the simulation model parameters, a shear calibration scheme, and a fast method to estimate the covariance matrix. We find a close statistical agreement between the simulations and the DES Y1 data using an array of diagnostics. In a nontomographic setting, we derive a set of Cℓ and n(z) curves that encode the cosmic shear measurement, as well as the systematic uncertainty. Following a blinding scheme, we measure the combination of Ωm, σ8, and intrinsic alignment amplitude AIA, defined as S8DIA=σ8(Ωm/0.3)0.5DIA, where DIA=1−0.11(AIA−1). We find S8DIA=0.895−0.039+0.054, where systematics are at the level of roughly 60% of the statistical errors. We discuss these results in the context of earlier cosmic shear analyses of the DES Y1 data. Our findings indicate that this method and its fast runtime offer good prospects for cosmic shear measurements with future wide-field surveys.
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Abstract
The apparent clustering in longitude of perihelion
ϖ
and ascending node Ω of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) has been attributed to the gravitational effects of an unseen 5–10 ...Earth-mass planet in the outer solar system. To investigate how selection bias may contribute to this clustering, we consider 14 ETNOs discovered by the Dark Energy Survey, the Outer Solar System Origins Survey, and the survey of Sheppard and Trujillo. Using each survey's published pointing history, depth, and TNO tracking selections, we calculate the joint probability that these objects are consistent with an underlying parent population with uniform distributions in
ϖ
and Ω. We find that the mean scaled longitude of perihelion and orbital poles of the detected ETNOs are consistent with a uniform population at a level between 17% and 94% and thus conclude that this sample provides no evidence for angular clustering.
KEPLER RAPIDLY ROTATING GIANT STARS Costa, A. D.; Martins, B. L. Canto; Bravo, J. P. ...
Astrophysical journal. Letters,
07/2015, Volume:
807, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
ABSTRACT Rapidly rotating giant stars are relatively rare and may represent important stages of stellar evolution, resulting from stellar coalescence of close binary systems or accretion of ...substellar companions by their hosting stars. In the present Letter, we report 17 giant stars observed in the scope of the Kepler space mission exhibiting rapid rotation behavior. For the first time, the abnormal rotational behavior for this puzzling family of stars is revealed by direct measurements of rotation, namely from photometric rotation period, exhibiting a very short rotation period with values ranging from 13 to 55 days. This finding points to remarkable surface rotation rates, up to 18 times the rotation of the Sun. These giants are combined with six others recently listed in the literature for mid-infrared (IR) diagnostics based on Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer information, from which a trend for an IR excess is revealed for at least one-half of the stars, but at a level far lower than the dust excess emission shown by planet-bearing main-sequence stars.
ABSTRACT
We present morphological classifications of ∼27 million galaxies from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Data Release 1 (DR1) using a supervised deep learning algorithm. The classification scheme ...separates: (a) early-type galaxies (ETGs) from late-type galaxies (LTGs); and (b) face-on galaxies from edge-on. Our convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are trained on a small subset of DES objects with previously known classifications. These typically have mr ≲ 17.7 mag; we model fainter objects to mr < 21.5 mag by simulating what the brighter objects with well-determined classifications would look like if they were at higher redshifts. The CNNs reach 97 per cent accuracy to mr < 21.5 on their training sets, suggesting that they are able to recover features more accurately than the human eye. We then used the trained CNNs to classify the vast majority of the other DES images. The final catalogue comprises five independent CNN predictions for each classification scheme, helping to determine if the CNN predictions are robust or not. We obtain secure classifications for ∼87 per cent and 73 per cent of the catalogue for the ETG versus LTG and edge-on versus face-on models, respectively. Combining the two classifications (a) and (b) helps to increase the purity of the ETG sample and to identify edge-on lenticular galaxies (as ETGs with high ellipticity). Where a comparison is possible, our classifications correlate very well with Sérsic index (n), ellipticity (ϵ), and spectral type, even for the fainter galaxies. This is the largest multiband catalogue of automated galaxy morphologies to date.
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