Half of all of the elements in the Universe that are heavier than iron were created by rapid neutron capture. The theory underlying this astrophysical r-process was worked out six decades ago, and ...requires an enormous neutron flux to make the bulk of the elements
. Where this happens is still debated
. A key piece of evidence would be the discovery of freshly synthesized r-process elements in an astrophysical site. Existing models
and circumstantial evidence
point to neutron-star mergers as a probable r-process site; the optical/infrared transient known as a 'kilonova' that emerges in the days after a merger is a likely place to detect the spectral signatures of newly created neutron-capture elements
. The kilonova AT2017gfo-which was found following the discovery of the neutron-star merger GW170817 by gravitational-wave detectors
-was the first kilonova for which detailed spectra were recorded. When these spectra were first reported
, it was argued that they were broadly consistent with an outflow of radioactive heavy elements; however, there was no robust identification of any one element. Here we report the identification of the neutron-capture element strontium in a reanalysis of these spectra. The detection of a neutron-capture element associated with the collision of two extreme-density stars establishes the origin of r-process elements in neutron-star mergers, and shows that neutron stars are made of neutron-rich matter
.
Abstract
We study the statistics of peaks in a weak-lensing reconstructed mass map of the first 450 deg2 of the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-450). The map is computed with aperture masses directly ...applied to the shear field with an NFW-like compensated filter. We compare the peak statistics in the observations with that of simulations for various cosmologies to constrain the cosmological parameter $S_8 = \sigma _8 \sqrt{\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3}$, which probes the (Ωm, σ8) plane perpendicularly to its main degeneracy. We estimate S8 = 0.750 ± 0.059, using peaks in the signal-to-noise range 0 ≤ S/N ≤ 4, and accounting for various systematics, such as multiplicative shear bias, mean redshift bias, baryon feedback, intrinsic alignment, and shear–position coupling. These constraints are ∼ 25 per cent tighter than the constraints from the high significance peaks alone (3 ≤ S/N ≤ 4) which typically trace single-massive haloes. This demonstrates the gain of information from low-S/N peaks. However, we find that including S/N < 0 peaks does not add further information. Our results are in good agreement with the tomographic shear two-point correlation function measurement in KiDS-450. Combining shear peaks with non-tomographic measurements of the shear two-point correlation functions yields a ∼20 per cent improvement in the uncertainty on S8 compared to the shear two-point correlation functions alone, highlighting the great potential of peaks as a cosmological probe.
Abstract
This paper is the first of a series of papers constraining cosmological parameters with weak lensing peak statistics using ∼ 450 deg2 of imaging data from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS-450). ...We measure high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR: ν) weak lensing convergence peaks in the range of 3 < ν < 5, and employ theoretical models to derive expected values. These models are validated using a suite of simulations. We take into account two major systematic effects, the boost factor and the effect of baryons on the mass–concentration relation of dark matter haloes. In addition, we investigate the impacts of other potential astrophysical systematics including the projection effects of large-scale structures, intrinsic galaxy alignments, as well as residual measurement uncertainties in the shear and redshift calibration. Assuming a flat Λ cold dark matter model, we find constraints for $S_{\rm 8}=\sigma _{\rm 8}(\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}=0.746^{+0.046}_{-0.107}$ according to the degeneracy direction of the cosmic shear analysis and $\Sigma _{\rm 8}=\sigma _{\rm 8}(\Omega _{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.38}=0.696^{+0.048}_{-0.050}$ based on the derived degeneracy direction of our high-SNR peak statistics. The difference between the power index of S8 and in Σ8 indicates that combining cosmic shear with peak statistics has the potential to break the degeneracy in σ8 and Ωm. Our results are consistent with the cosmic shear tomographic correlation analysis of the same data set and ∼2σ lower than the Planck 2016 results.
We present the curation and verification of a new combined optical and near infrared dataset for cosmology and astrophysics, derived by combining ugri-band imaging from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) ...and ZYJHKs-band imaging from the VISTA Kilo degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey. This dataset is unrivaled in cosmological imaging surveys due to the combination of its area (458 deg2 before masking), depth (r ≤ 25), and wavelength coverage (ugriZYJHKs). This combination of survey depth, area, and (most importantly) wavelength coverage allows significant reductions in systematic uncertainties (i.e. reductions of between 10% and 60% in bias, outlier rate, and scatter) in photometric-to-spectroscopic redshift comparisons, compared to the optical-only case at photo-z above 0.7. The complementarity between our optical and near infrared surveys means that over 80% of our sources, across all photo-z, have significant detections (i.e. not upper limits) in our eight reddest bands. We have derived photometry, photo-z, and stellar masses for all sources in the survey, and verified these data products against existing spectroscopic galaxy samples. We demonstrate the fidelity of our higher-level data products by constructing the survey stellar mass functions in eight volume-complete redshift bins. We find that these photometrically derived mass functions provide excellent agreement with previous mass evolution studies derived using spectroscopic surveys. The primary data products presented in this paper are made publicly available through the KiDS survey website.
ABSTRACT
We present a 23 deg2 weak gravitational lensing survey of the Shapley supercluster core and its surroundings using gri VST images as part of the Shapley Supercluster Survey (ShaSS). This ...study reveals the overall matter distribution over a region containing 11 clusters at z ∼ 0.048 that are all interconnected, as well as several ongoing cluster–cluster interactions. Galaxy shapes have been measured by using the Kaiser–Squires–Broadhurst method for the g- and r-band images and background galaxies were selected via the gri colour–colour diagram. This technique has allowed us to detect all of the clusters, either in the g- or r-band images, although at different σ levels, indicating that the underlying dark matter distribution is tightly correlated with the number density of the member galaxies. The deeper r-band images have traced the five interacting clusters in the supercluster core as a single coherent structure, confirmed the presence of a filament extending North from the core, and have revealed a background cluster at z ∼ 0.17. We have measured the masses of the four richest clusters (A3556, A3558, A3560, and A3562) in the two-dimensional shear pattern, assuming a spherical Navarro–Frenk–White profile and obtaining a total mass of $\mathcal {M}_{\rm ShaSS,WL}{=}1.56^{+0.81}_{-0.55}{\times }10^{15\, }{\rm M}_{\odot }$, which is consistent with dynamical and X-ray studies. Our analysis provides further evidence of the ongoing dynamical evolution in the ShaSS region.
Abstract
The second-generation gravitational wave detectors Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo have shown their breakthrough capability to shed light on our understanding of the Universe. Although the ...steady increase in sensitivity, these detectors will hit in the future limitations due to their hosting infrastructures. This is the reason why a new generation of gravitational wave detectors are under studies. The Einstein Telescope (ET) is a planned European 3
rd
generation gravitational Wave (GW) Observatory, a new research infrastructure designed to host a detector capable to observe the entire Universe using gravitational waves. ET will be a multi-interferometer observatory aiming to increase a factor ten the sensitivity of previous generation detectors. We will give an overview of the project, describe the main scientific goals and the technological challenges that must be overcome to reach the expected sensitivity.
The combination of Gravitational (GW) and Electromagnetic (EM) observations along with neutrino and cosmic rays allow us to get a more comprehensive understanding of the Universe. Despite the ...difficulties to identify the electromagnetic counterpart of a gravitational waves a successful achievement was obtained in the case of GW170817 event. It demonstrated the huge potential of the Multi-Messenger Astrophysics. We will show the effort done in the search and characterization of his GW EM counterpart in the framework of the GRAWITA project.
Observations of diffuse starlight in the outskirts of galaxies are thought to be a fundamental source of constraints on the cosmological context of galaxy assembly in the Λ CDM model. Such ...observations are not trivial because of the extreme faintness of such regions. In this work, we investigated the photometric properties of six massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the VST Elliptical GAlaxies Survey (VEGAS) sample (NGC 1399, NGC 3923, NGC 4365, NGC 4472, NGC 5044, and NGC 5846) out to extremely low surface brightness levels with the goal of characterizing the global structure of their light profiles for comparison to state-of-the-art galaxy formation models. We carried out deep and detailed photometric mapping of our ETG sample taking advantage of deep imaging with VST/OmegaCAM in the g and i bands. By fitting the light profiles, and comparing the results to simulations of elliptical galaxy assembly, we have identified signatures of a transition between relaxed and unrelaxed accreted components and can constrain the balance between in situ and accreted stars. The very good agreement of our results with predictions from theoretical simulations demonstrates that the full VEGAS sample of ∼ 100 ETGs will allow us to use the distribution of diffuse light as a robust statistical probe of the hierarchical assembly of massive galaxies.
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