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Register a new userThe Local Hole: a galaxy under-density covering 90% of sky to ~200 Mpc
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We investigate the `Local Hole, an anomalous under-density in the local galaxy environment, by extending our previous galaxy $K-$band number-redshift and number-magnitude counts to $approx 90%$ of the sky. Our redshift samples are taken from the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) and the 2M++ catalogues, limited to $K<11.5$. We find that both surveys are in good agreement, showing an $approx 21-22%$ under-density at $z<0.075$ when compared to our homogeneous counts model that assumes the same luminosity function and other parameters as Whitbourn & Shanks (2014). Using the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) for $n(K)$ galaxy counts, we measure an under-density relative to this model of $20pm 2 %$ at $K<11.5$, which is consistent in both form and scale with the observed $n(z)$ under-density. To examine further the accuracy of the counts model, we compare its prediction for the fainter $n(K)$ counts of the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We further compare these data with a model assuming the parameters of Lavaux & Hudson (2011} whose previous study found little evidence for the Local Hole. At $13<K<16$ we find a significantly better fit for our model, arguing for our higher luminosity function normalisation. Although our implied under-density of $approx 20%$ means local measurements of the Hubble Constant have been over-estimated by $approx3$%, such a scale of under-density is in tension with a global $Lambda$CDM cosmology at an $approx3sigma$ level.
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We have obtained new Tully-Fisher (TF) peculiar velocity measurements for 52 Abell galaxy clusters distributed throughout the sky between ~ 50 and 200 Mpc/h.The measurements are based on I band photometry and optical rotation curves for a sample of 522 spiral galaxies, from which an accurate TF template relation has been constructed. Individual cluster TF relations are referred to the template to compute cluster peculiar motions. The reflex motion of the Local Group of galaxies is measured with respect to the reference frame defined by our cluster sample and the distant portion of the Giovanelli et al. (1998) cluster set. We find the Local Group motion in this frame to be 565+/-113 km/s in the direction (l,b)=(267,26)+/-10 when peculiar velocities are weighted according to their errors. After optimizing the dipole calculation to sample equal volumes equally, the vector is 509+/-195 km/s towards (255,33)+/-22. Both solutions agree, to within 1-sigma or better, with the Local Group motion as inferred from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole. Thus, the cluster sample as a whole moves slowly in the CMB reference frame, its bulk flow being at most 200 km/s.
Whitbourn & Shanks (2014) have reported evidence for a local void underdense by ~15% extending to 150-300h-1Mpc around our position in the Southern Galactic Cap (SGC). Assuming a local luminosity function they modelled K- and r-limited number counts and redshift distributions in the 6dFGS/2MASS and SDSS redshift surveys and derived normalised n(z) ratios relative to the standard homogeneous cosmological model. Here we test further these results using maximum likelihood techniques that solve for the galaxy density distributions and the galaxy luminosity function simultaneously. We confirm the results from the previous analysis in terms of the number density distributions, indicating that our detection of the Local Hole in the SGC is robust to the assumption of either our previous, or newly estimated, luminosity functions. However, there are discrepancies with previously published K and r band luminosity functions. In particular the r-band luminosity function has a steeper faint end slope than the r0.1 results of Blanton et al. (2003) but is consistent with the r0.1 results of Montero-Dorta & Prada (2009); Loveday et al. (2012).
We derive and test an approximation for the angular power spectrum of galaxy number counts in the flat sky limit. The standard density and redshift space distortion (RSD) terms in the resulting approximation are distinct to the Limber approximation, providing an accurate result for multipoles as low as $ellsimeq10$, where the corresponding Limber approximation is completely inaccurate. At equal redshift the accuracy of the density and RSD (standard) terms is around 0.2% for $z<3$ and 0.5% at $z=5$, even to $ell<50$. At unequal redshifts, if we consider the total power spectrum, the precision is better than 5% only for very small redshift differences, $delta <delta_0 (simeq 3.6times10^{-4}(1+z)^{2.14})$ where the standard terms are well-approximated, or for large enough redshift differences $delta >delta_1 (simeq 0.33(r(z)H(z))/(z+1))$ where the lensing terms dominate. The flat sky expressions for the pure lensing and the lensing-density cross-correlation terms are equivalent to the Limber approximation. For arbitrary redshift differences, the Limber approximation achieves an accuracy of 0.5% (above $ellsimeq 40$ for pure lensing and $ellsimeq 80$ for density-lensing). Besides being very accurate, the flat sky approximation is computationally much simpler and can therefore be very useful for data analysis and forecasts with MCMC methods. This will be particularly crucial for upcoming galaxy surveys that will measure the power spectrum of galaxy number counts.
The ARCADE 2 instrument has measured the absolute temperature of the sky at frequencies 3, 8, 10, 30, and 90 GHz, using an open-aperture cryogenic instrument observing at balloon altitudes with no emissive windows between the beam-forming optics and the sky. An external blackbody calibrator provides an {it in situ} reference. Systematic errors were greatly reduced by using differential radiometers and cooling all critical components to physical temperatures approximating the CMB temperature. A linear model is used to compare the output of each radiometer to a set of thermometers on the instrument. Small corrections are made for the residual emission from the flight train, balloon, atmosphere, and foreground Galactic emission. The ARCADE 2 data alone show an extragalactic rise of $50pm7$ mK at 3.3 GHz in addition to a CMB temperature of $2.730pm .004$ K. Combining the ARCADE 2 data with data from the literature shows a background power law spectrum of $T=1.26pm 0.09$ [K] $( u/ u_0)^{-2.60pm 0.04}$ from 22 MHz to 10 GHz ($ u_0=1$ GHz) in addition to a CMB temperature of $2.725pm .001$ K.
ASASSN-14ae is a candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) found at the center of SDSS J110840.11+340552.2 ($dsimeq200$~Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). We present ground-based and Swift follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations of the source, finding that the transient had a peak luminosity of $Lsimeq8times10^{43}$~erg~s$^{-1}$ and a total integrated energy of $Esimeq1.7times10^{50}$ ergs radiated over the $sim5$ months of observations presented. The blackbody temperature of the transient remains roughly constant at $Tsim20,000$~K while the luminosity declines by nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude during this time, a drop that is most consistent with an exponential, $Lpropto e^{-t/t_0}$ with $t_0simeq39$~days. The source has broad Balmer lines in emission at all epochs as well as a broad He II feature emerging in later epochs. We compare the color and spectral evolution to both supernovae and normal AGN to show that { ame} does not resemble either type of object and conclude that a TDE is the most likely explanation for our observations. At $z=0.0436$, ASASSN-14ae is the lowest-redshift TDE candidate discovered at optical/UV wavelengths to date, and we estimate that ASAS-SN may discover $0.1 - 3$ of these events every year in the future.
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