| 1. |
- Acharya, Anshuman, et al.
(författare)
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21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization : a machine learning upgrade to foreground removal with Gaussian process regression
- 2024
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 527:3, s. 7835-7846
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years, a Gaussian process regression (GPR)-based framework has been developed for foreground mitigation from data collected by the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), to measure the 21-cm signal power spectrum from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) and cosmic dawn. However, it has been noted that through this method there can be a significant amount of signal loss if the EoR signal covariance is misestimated. To obtain better covariance models, we propose to use a kernel trained on the grizzly simulations using a Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE)-based algorithm. In this work, we explore the abilities of this machine learning-based kernel (VAE kernel) used with GPR, by testing it on mock signals from a variety of simulations, exploring noise levels corresponding to ≈10 nights (≈141 h) and ≈100 nights (≈1410 h) of observations with LOFAR. Our work suggests the possibility of successful extraction of the 21-cm signal within 2σ uncertainty in most cases using the VAE kernel, with better recovery of both shape and power than with previously used covariance models. We also explore the role of the excess noise component identified in past applications of GPR and additionally analyse the possibility of redshift dependence on the performance of the VAE kernel. The latter allows us to prepare for future LOFAR observations at a range of redshifts, as well as compare with results from other telescopes.
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| 2. |
- Ahn, Kyungjin, et al.
(författare)
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DETECTING THE RISE AND FALL OF THE FIRST STARS BY THEIR IMPACT ON COSMIC REIONIZATION
- 2012
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal Letters. - 2041-8205. ; 756:1, s. L16-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The intergalactic medium was reionized before redshift z similar to 6, most likely by starlight which escaped from early galaxies. The very first stars formed when hydrogen molecules (H-2) cooled gas inside the smallest galaxies, minihalos (MHs) of mass between 10(5) and 10(8) M-circle dot. Although the very first stars began forming inside these MHs before redshift z similar to 40, their contribution has, to date, been ignored in large-scale simulations of this cosmic reionization. Here we report results from the first reionization simulations to include these first stars and the radiative feedback that limited their formation, in a volume large enough to follow the crucial spatial variations that influenced the process and its observability. We show that, while MH stars stopped far short of fully ionizing the universe, reionization began much earlier with MH sources than without, and was greatly extended, which boosts the intergalactic electron-scattering optical depth and the large-angle polarization fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background significantly. This boost should be readily detectable by Planck, although within current Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe uncertainties. If reionization ended as late as z(ov) less than or similar to 7, as suggested by other observations, Planck will thereby see the signature of the first stars at high redshift, currently undetectable by other probes.
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| 3. |
- Ahn, Kyungjin, et al.
(författare)
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The Inhomogeneous Background Of H2-Dissociating Radiation During Cosmic Reionization
- 2009
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 695, s. 1430-1445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first, self-consistent calculations are presented of the cosmological, H2-dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the intergalactic medium (IGM) from all the sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~108 M sun, identified by very high resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous radiation background in the Lyman-Werner (LW) bands of H2 between 11 and 13.6 eV. On average, the intensity of this LW background is found to rise to the threshold level at which dissociation suppresses H2 cooling and star formation inside minihalos, long before reionization is complete. Spatial variations in the LW background are found which result from the clustering of sources associated with large-scale structure formation, such that intensity fluctuations correlate with matter density fluctuations. As a result, the LW background rises to the threshold level for H2 suppression earlier in the vicinity of the reionization sources and their H II regions.
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| 4. |
- Ahn, Kyungjin, et al.
(författare)
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The Inhomogeneous Background of H2 Dissociating Radiation During Cosmic Reionization
- 2008
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Ingår i: FIRST STARS III. - : American Institute of Physics.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first, self-consistent calculations of the cosmological H2 dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization are presented. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~108 Msolar, identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous background in the Lyman-Werner band of H2 between 11 and 13.6 eV.
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| 5. |
- Ahn, Kyungjin, et al.
(författare)
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The Inhomogeneous Background of Hydrogen-Molecule Dissociating Radiation during Cosmic Reionization
- 2008
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The first, self-consistent calculations are presented of the cosmological, H2-dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all the sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~10^8 Msun, identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous radiation background in the Lyman-Werner bands of H2 between 11 and 13.6 eV. On average, the intensity of this Lyman-Werner background is found to rise to the threshold level at which dissociation suppresses H2 cooling and star formation inside minihalos, long before reionization is complete. Spatial variations in the Lyman-Werner background are found which result from the clustering of sources associated with large-scale structure formation, such that intensity fluctuations correlate with matter density fluctuations. As a result, the Lyman-Werner background rises to the threshold level for H2 suppression earlier in the vicinity of the reionization sources and their H II regions.
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| 6. |
- Arthur, S. J., et al.
(författare)
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Radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of H II regions and their associated PDRs in turbulent molecular clouds
- 2011
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 414:2, s. 1747-1768
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the results of radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the formation and expansion of H II regions and their surrounding photodissociation regions (PDRs) in turbulent, magnetized, molecular clouds on scales of up to 4 pc. We include the effects of ionizing and non-ionizing ultraviolet radiation and X-rays from population synthesis models of young star clusters. For all our simulations we find that the H II region expansion reduces the disordered component of the magnetic field, imposing a large-scale order on the field around its border, with the field in the neutral gas tending to lie along the ionization front, while the field in the ionized gas tends to be perpendicular to the front. The highest pressure-compressed neutral and molecular gas is driven towards approximate equipartition between thermal, magnetic and turbulent energy densities, whereas lower pressure neutral/molecular gas bifurcates into, on the one hand, quiescent, magnetically dominated regions and, on the other hand, turbulent, demagnetized regions. The ionized gas shows approximate equipartition between thermal and turbulent energy densities, but with magnetic energy densities that are 1-3 orders of magnitude lower. A high velocity dispersion (similar to 8 km s(-1)) is maintained in the ionized gas throughout our simulations, despite the mean expansion velocity being significantly lower. The magnetic field does not significantly brake the large-scale H II region expansion on the length and time-scales accessible to our simulations, but it does tend to suppress the smallest scale fragmentation and radiation-driven implosion of neutral/molecular gas that forms globules and pillars at the edge of the H II region. However, the relative luminosity of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation has a much larger influence than the presence or absence of the magnetic field. When the star cluster radiation field is relatively soft (as in the case of a lower mass cluster, containing an earliest spectral type of B0.5), then fragmentation is less vigorous and a thick, relatively smooth PDR forms.
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| 7. |
- Asad, K. M. B., et al.
(författare)
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Polarization leakage in epoch of reionization windows - I. Low Frequency Array observations of the 3C196 field
- 2015
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 451:4, s. 3709-3727
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Detection of the 21-cm signal coming from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is challenging especially because, even after removing the foregrounds, the residual Stokes I maps contain leakage from polarized emission that can mimic the signal. Here, we discuss the instrumental polarization of Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and present realistic simulations of the leakages between Stokes parameters. From the LOFAR observations of polarized emission in the 3C196 field, we have quantified the level of polarization leakage caused by the nominal model beam of LOFAR, and compared it with the EoR signal using power spectrum analysis. We found that at 134-166 MHz, within the central 4A degrees of the field the (Q, U) -> I leakage power is lower than the EoR signal at k < 0.3 Mpc(-1). The leakage was found to be localized around a Faraday depth of 0, and the rms of the leakage as a fraction of the rms of the polarized emission was shown to vary between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent, both of which could be utilized in the removal of leakage. Moreover, we could define an 'EoR window' in terms of the polarization leakage in the cylindrical power spectrum above the point spread function (PSF)-induced wedge and below k(ayen) similar to 0.5 Mpc(-1), and the window extended up to k(ayen) similar to 1 Mpc(-1) at all k(aSyen) when 70 per cent of the leakage had been removed. These LOFAR results show that even a modest polarimetric calibration over a field of view of a parts per thousand(2) 4A degrees in the future arrays like Square Kilometre Array will ensure that the polarization leakage remains well below the expected EoR signal at the scales of 0.02-1 Mpc(-1).
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| 8. |
- Bianco, Michele, et al.
(författare)
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Deep learning approach for identification of H II regions during reionization in 21-cm observations
- 2021
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 505:3, s. 3982-3997
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The upcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA-Low) will map the distribution of neutral hydrogen during reionization and produce a tremendous amount of three-dimensional tomographic data. These image cubes will be subject to instrumental limitations, such as noise and limited resolution. Here, we present SegU-Net, a stable and reliable method for identifying neutral and ionized regions in these images. SegU-Net is a U-Net architecture-based convolutional neural network for image segmentation. It is capable of segmenting our image data into meaningful features (ionized and neutral regions) with greater accuracy compared to previous methods. We can estimate the ionization history from our mock observation of SKA with an observation time of 1000 h with more than 87 percent accuracy. We also show that SegU-Net can be used to recover the size distributions and Betti numbers, with a relative difference of only a few percent from the values derived from the original smoothed and then binarized neutral fraction field. These summary statistics characterize the non-Gaussian nature of the reionization process.
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| 9. |
- chiappo, andrea, 1988-
(författare)
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Prior-less derivation of the astrophysical factor of Dwarf Spheroidal galaxies
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way are considered ideal targets for particle Dark Matter (DM) identification. Indirect detection strategies entail examining dSphs in search for signals of annihilating or decaying DM, in the form of excess electrons or gamma- and X-ray photons above the astrophysical background. To robustly compare model predictions with the observed fluxes of such product particles, most analyses of astrophysical data - which are generally frequentist - rely on estimating the abundance of DM by calculating the so-called J-factor. This quantity is usually inferred from the kinematic properties of the stellar population of a dSph using Jeans equation, commonly by means of Bayesian techniques. Previous works have, therefore, combined different statistical methods when analysing astrophysical data from dSphs. In this thesis, I describe the development of a new, fully-frequentist approach for constructing profile likelihood curves for the J-factor of dSphs. I then use kinematic data from 20 dSphs to derive estimates of their maximum likelihood J-factor and its confidence intervals. The obtained J-factors and their uncertainties are in good agreement with previous, Bayesian-derived values. This technique is validated using a publicly available simulation suite, released by Gaia Challenge, by evaluating its coverage and bias. The results of these tests indicate that the method possess good statistical properties. The implications of these findings for DM searches are discussed, together with future improvements and extensions of this technique.
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| 10. |
- Ciardi, B., et al.
(författare)
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Prospects for detecting the 21 cm forest from the diffuse intergalactic medium with LOFAR
- 2013
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 428:2, s. 1755-1765
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss the feasibility of the detection of the 21 cm forest in the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) with the radio telescope LOFAR. The optical depth to the 21 cm line has been derived using simulations of reionization which include detailed radiative transfer of ionizing photons. We find that the spectra from reionization models with similar total comoving hydrogen ionizing emissivity but different frequency distribution look remarkably similar. Thus, unless the reionization histories are very different from each other (e.g. a predominance of UV versus X-ray heating) we do not expect to distinguish them by means of observations of the 21 cm forest. Because the presence of a strong X-ray background would make the detection of the 21 cm line absorption impossible, the lack of absorption could be used as a probe of the presence/intensity of the X-ray background and the thermal history of the Universe. Along a random line of sight LOFAR could detect a global suppression of the spectrum from z greater than or similar to 12, when the IGM is still mostly neutral and cold, in contrast with the more well-defined, albeit broad, absorption features visible at lower redshift. Sharp, strong absorption features associated with rare, high-density pockets of gas could also be detected at z similar to 7 along preferential lines of sight.
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