We perform a search for stellar streams around the Milky Way using the first 3 yr of multiband optical imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We use DES data covering ∼5000 deg2 to a depth ...of g > 23.5 with a relative photometric calibration uncertainty of <1%. This data set yields unprecedented sensitivity to the stellar density field in the southern celestial hemisphere, enabling the detection of faint stellar streams to a heliocentric distance of ∼50 kpc. We search for stellar streams using a matched filter in color-magnitude space derived from a synthetic isochrone of an old, metal-poor stellar population. Our detection technique recovers four previously known thin stellar streams: Phoenix, ATLAS, Tucana III, and a possible extension of Molonglo. In addition, we report the discovery of 11 new stellar streams. In general, the new streams detected by DES are fainter, more distant, and lower surface brightness than streams detected by similar techniques in previous photometric surveys. As a by-product of our stellar stream search, we find evidence for extratidal stellar structure associated with four globular clusters: NGC 288, NGC 1261, NGC 1851, and NGC 1904. The ever-growing sample of stellar streams will provide insight into the formation of the Galactic stellar halo, the Milky Way gravitational potential, and the large- and small-scale distribution of dark matter around the Milky Way.
We cross-match high-precision astrometric data from Gaia DR2 with accurate multiband photometry from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) DR1 to confidently measure proper motions for nine stellar streams in ...the DES footprint: Aliqa Uma, ATLAS, Chenab, Elqui, Indus, Jhelum, Phoenix, Tucana III, and Turranburra. We determine low-confidence proper-motion measurements for four additional stellar streams: Ravi, Wambelong, Willka Yaku, and Turbio. We find evidence for a misalignment between stream tracks and the systemic proper motion of streams that may suggest a systematic gravitational influence from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). These proper motions, when combined with radial velocity measurements, will allow for detailed orbit modeling that can be used to constrain properties of the LMC and its effect on nearby streams, as well as global properties of the Milky Way's gravitational potential.
Abstract
The DECam Local Volume Exploration survey (DELVE) is a 126-night survey program on the 4 m Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. DELVE seeks to understand ...the characteristics of faint satellite galaxies and other resolved stellar substructures over a range of environments in the Local Volume. DELVE will combine new DECam observations with archival DECam data to cover ∼15,000 deg
2
of high Galactic latitude (∣
b
∣ > 10°) southern sky to a 5
σ
depth of
g
,
r
,
i
,
z
∼ 23.5 mag. In addition, DELVE will cover a region of ∼2200 deg
2
around the Magellanic Clouds to a depth of
g
,
r
,
i
∼ 24.5 mag and an area of ∼135 deg
2
around four Magellanic analogs to a depth of
g
,
i
∼ 25.5 mag. Here, we present an overview of the DELVE program and progress to date. We also summarize the first DELVE public data release (DELVE DR1), which provides point-source and automatic aperture photometry for ∼520 million astronomical sources covering ∼5000 deg
2
of the southern sky to a 5
σ
point-source depth of
g
= 24.3 mag,
r
= 23.9 mag,
i
= 23.3 mag, and
z
= 22.8 mag. DELVE DR1 is publicly available via the NOIRLab Astro Data Lab science platform.
ABSTRACT
We introduce the southern stellar stream spectroscopy survey (S5), an on-going program to map the kinematics and chemistry of stellar streams in the southern hemisphere. The initial focus of ...S5 has been spectroscopic observations of recently identified streams within the footprint of the dark energy survey (DES), with the eventual goal of surveying streams across the entire southern sky. Stellar streams are composed of material that has been tidally striped from dwarf galaxies and globular clusters and hence are excellent dynamical probes of the gravitational potential of the Milky Way, as well as providing a detailed snapshot of its accretion history. Observing with the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope’s 2-degree-Field fibre positioner and AAOmega spectrograph, and combining the precise photometry of DES DR1 with the superb proper motions from Gaia DR2, allows us to conduct an efficient spectroscopic survey to map these stellar streams. So far S5 has mapped nine DES streams and three streams outside of DES; the former are the first spectroscopic observations of these recently discovered streams. In addition to the stream survey, we use spare fibres to undertake a Milky Way halo survey and a low-redshift galaxy survey. This paper presents an overview of the S5 program, describing the scientific motivation for the survey, target selection, observation strategy, data reduction, and survey validation. Finally, we describe early science results on stellar streams and Milky Way halo stars drawn from the survey. Updates on S5, including future public data releases, can be found at http://s5collab.github.io.
Abstract
We present a spectroscopic study of the tidal tails and core of the Milky Way satellite Tucana III, collectively referred to as the Tucana III stream, using the 2dF+AAOmega spectrograph on ...the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the IMACS spectrograph on the Magellan Baade Telescope. In addition to recovering the brightest nine previously known member stars in the Tucana III core, we identify 22 members in the tidal tails. We observe strong evidence for a velocity gradient of
over at least 3° on the sky. Based on the continuity in velocity, we confirm that the Tucana III tails are real tidal extensions of Tucana III. The large velocity gradient of the stream implies that Tucana III is likely on a radial orbit. We successfully obtain metallicities for four members in the core and 12 members in the tails. We find that members close to the ends of the stream tend to be more metal-poor than members in the core, indicating a possible metallicity gradient between the center of the progenitor halo and its edge. The spread in metallicity suggests that the progenitor of the Tucana III stream is likely a dwarf galaxy rather than a star cluster. Furthermore, we find that with the precise photometry of the Dark Energy Survey data, there is a discernible color offset between metal-rich disk stars and metal-poor stream members. This metallicity-dependent color offers a more efficient method to recognize metal-poor targets and will increase the selection efficiency of stream members for future spectroscopic follow-up programs on stellar streams.
Abstract
We perform a detailed photometric and astrometric analysis of stars in the Jet stream using data from the first data release of the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey DR1 and Gaia EDR3. ...We discover that the stream extends over ∼ 29° on the sky (increasing the known length by 18°), which is comparable to the kinematically cold Phoenix, ATLAS, and GD-1 streams. Using blue horizontal branch stars, we resolve a distance gradient along the Jet stream of 0.2 kpc deg
−1
, with distances ranging from
D
⊙
∼ 27–34 kpc. We use natural splines to simultaneously fit the stream track, width, and intensity to quantitatively characterize density variations in the Jet stream, including a large gap, and identify substructure off the main track of the stream. Furthermore, we report the first measurement of the proper motion of the Jet stream and find that it is well aligned with the stream track, suggesting the stream has likely not been significantly perturbed perpendicular to the line of sight. Finally, we fit the stream with a dynamical model and find that it is on a retrograde orbit, and is well fit by a gravitational potential including the Milky Way and Large Magellanic Cloud. These results indicate the Jet stream is an excellent candidate for future studies with deeper photometry, astrometry, and spectroscopy to study the potential of the Milky Way and probe perturbations from baryonic and dark matter substructure.
To determine whether the extent of myocardial fibrosis by late-gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance (LGE-CMR), and echocardiographic ventricular dyssynchrony are independently ...associated with response to medical therapy in patients with newly diagnosed idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Myocardial fibrosis and ventricular dyssynchrony are frequent findings in DCM. Previous studies focused on patients with established cardiomyopathy; however, the degree of myocardial fibrosis and ventricular dyssynchrony at presentation and their role in perpetuating left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in DCM remains unclear. Those studies of individuals with long-standing DCM did not characterize patients early in the disease course, and may not have included those with significant improvement in LV function. Thus factors contributing to LV recovery are uncertain.
Consecutive patients with a new diagnosis of DCM LV ejection fraction (EF) ≤45% made within the preceding 2 weeks were recruited. Patients underwent LGE-CMR, echocardiography, 6-minute walk testing, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and blood sampling for measurement of serum amino-terminal pro-brain natiuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) concentration at baseline. Baseline patient characteristics were compared with a cohort of healthy volunteers. Myocardial fibrosis by LGE-CMR was quantified, identified by experienced observers blinded to patient outcome. Left ventricular systolic function was reassessed after 5 months of optimal medical therapy. Sixty-eight patients with DCM and 19 healthy volunteers were studied. DCM patients were studied a median 12.5 days following diagnosis. Compared with healthy controls, DCM patients exhibited greater inter- and intra-ventricular dyssynchrony. Twenty-four per cent of DCM patients exhibited LGE at diagnosis. Among DCM patients with LGE, the mean fibrosis mass was 2.2 ± 1.3 g. On multivariate analysis, strain dyssynchrony index, and fibrosis mass were independently associated with change in the LVEF over time (P≤ 0.001). Late-gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance conferred additive value for modelling change in the LVEF beyond clinical and echocardiographic dyssynchrony parameters.
The extent of myocardial fibrosis is independently associated with lack of response to medical therapy in new-presentation DCM, and LGE-CMR may thus be an important risk-stratifying investigation in these patients. Accurate risk stratification may permit more targeted pharmacological and device therapies for patients with newly diagnosed DCM.
There is an ongoing controversy regarding the role of gender in modulating components of the human visual-evoked potential (VEP) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Our aim was to further ...characterize the role of gender on VEPs, ERPs and response performance in an object recognition task. We recorded VEPs and reaction time (RT) in a paradigm wherein subjects responded to a randomly presented “Relevant” stimulus, and did not respond when presented with “Irrelevant” or “Standard” visual stimuli. There was no effect of gender on early components of the VEP or RT to Relevant stimuli. Relevant and Irrelevant stimuli evoked distinct VEP components including the P300, N400 and late-positive (LP) ERPs that were well-discriminated from those of the Standard stimulus. Females were characterized by greater P300 and N400 responses than males for the Relevant stimulus, but exclusively greater N400 responses for the Irrelevant stimulus. There were no significant gender differences for the LP, or for the latency of any ERP component. Gender differences were not attributed to hemispheric asymmetry, as there were no significant differences in P300 and N400 VEP amplitudes between lateral occipital or parietal electrode positions. These results indicate that the N400 can be elicited in a task requiring the processing of irrelevant, but not unexpected, stimuli and that females process visual information differently than males, perhaps by increased allocation of attentional resources to distracting stimuli.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
1 Exercise Physiology
Laboratory, School of Education, The Flinders University of South
Australia, Adelaide, South Australia 5001;
2 Department of Nuclear Medicine,
Royal Adelaide Hospital, ...Adelaide, South Australia 5000; and
3 Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization, Division of Water Resources, Glen
Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia
This study compared the traditional
two-compartment (fat mass or FM; fat free mass or FFM)
hydrodensitometric method of body composition measurement, which is
based on body density, with three (FM, total body water or TBW, fat
free dry mass)- and four (FM, TBW, bone mineral mass or BMM,
residual)-compartment models in highly trained men
( n = 12), sedentary men
( n = 12), highly trained women
( n = 12), and sedentary women
( n = 12). The means and
variances for the relative body fat (%BF) differences between the two-
and three-compartment models 2.2 ± 1.6 (SD) % BF;
n = 48 were significantly
greater ( P 0.02) than those between the three- and four-compartment models (0.2 ± 0.3% BF;
n = 48) for all four groups. The
three-compartment model is more valid than the two-compartment
hydrodensitometric model because it controls for biological variability
in TBW, but additional control for interindividual variability in BMM
via the four-compartment model achieves little extra accuracy. The
combined group ( n = 48) exhibited greater ( P < 0.001) FFM densities
(1.1075 ± 0.0049 g/cm 3 ) than
the hydrodensitometric assumption of 1.1000 g/cm 3 , which is based on analyses
of three male cadavers aged 25, 35, and 46 yr. This was primarily
because their FFM hydration (72.4 ± 1.1%;
n = 48) was lower
( P 0.001) than the
hydrodensitometric assumption of 73.72%.
hydrodensitometry; total body water; dual-energy X-ray
absorptiometry; sedentary subjects; endurance athletes