No Arabic abstract
In this paper we present the coordinates of 67 55 x 55 patches of sky which have the rare combination of both high stellar surface density (>0.5 arcmin^{-2} with 13<R<16.5 mag) and low extinction (E(B-V)<0.1). These fields are ideal for adaptive-optics based follow-up of extragalactic targets. One region of sky, situated near Baades Window, contains most of the patches we have identified. Our optimal field, centered at RA: 7h24m3s, Dec: -1deg2715, has an additional advantage of being accessible from both hemispheres. We propose a figure of merit for quantifying real-world adaptive optics performance, and use this to analyze the performance of multi-conjugate adaptive optics in these fields. We also compare our results to those that would be obtained in existing deep fields. In some cases adaptive optics observations undertaken in the fields given in this paper would be orders of magnitude more efficient than equivalent observations undertaken in existing deep fields.
Using the latest generation of adaptive optics imaging systems together with laser guide stars on 8m-class telescopes, we are finally revealing the previously-hidden population of supernovae in starburst galaxies. Finding these supernovae and measuring the amount of absorption due to dust is crucial to being able to accurately trace the star formation history of our Universe. Our images of the host galaxies are amongst the sharpest ever obtained from the ground, and reveal much about how and why these galaxies are forming massive stars (that become supernovae) at such a prodigious rate.
The joint analysis of the Dispersion and Faraday Rotation Measure from distant, polarised Fast Radio Bursts may be used to put constraints on the origin and distribution of extragalactic magnetic fields on cosmological scales. While the combination of Dispersion and Faraday Rotation Measure can in principle give the average magnetic fields along the line-of-sight, in practice this method must be used with care because it strongly depends on the assumed magnetisation model on large cosmological scales. Our simulations show that the observation of Rotation Measures with $geq 1-10 ~rm rad/m^2$ in $sim 10^2$ Fast Radio Bursts will be able to discriminate between extreme scenarios for the origin of cosmic magnetic fields, independent of the exact distribution of sources with redshift. This represent a strong case for incoming (e.g. ALERT, CHIME) and future (e.g. with the Square Kilometer Array) radio polarisation surveys of the sky.
A physical field has an infinite number of degrees of freedom since it has a field value at each location of a continuous space. Therefore, it is impossible to know a field from finite measurements alone and prior information on the field is essential for field inference. An information theory for fields is needed to join the measurement and prior information into probabilistic statements on field configurations. Such an information field theory (IFT) is built upon the language of mathematical physics, in particular on field theory and statistical mechanics. IFT permits the mathematical derivation of optimal imaging algorithms, data analysis methods, and even computer simulation schemes. The application of IFT algorithms to astronomical datasets provides high fidelity images of the Universe and facilitates the search for subtle statistical signals from the Big Bang. The concepts of IFT might even pave the road to novel computer simulations that are aware of their own uncertainties.
We present a new pipeline for the efficient generation of synthetic observations of the extragalactic microwave sky, tailored to large ground-based CMB experiments such as the Simons Observatory, Advanced ACTPol, SPT-3G, and CMB-S4. Such simulated observations are a key technical challenge in cosmology because of the dynamic range and accuracy required. The first part of the pipeline generates a random cosmological realization in the form of a dark matter halo catalog and matter displacement field, as seen from a given position. The halo catalog and displacement field are modeled with ellipsoidal collapse dynamics and Lagrangian perturbation theory, respectively. In the second part, the cosmological realization is converted into a set of intensity maps over the range 10 - 10^3 GHz using models based on existing observations and hydrodynamical simulations. These maps include infrared emission from dusty star forming galaxies (CIB), Comptonization of CMB photons by hot gas in groups and clusters through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (tSZ), Doppler boosting by Thomson scattering of the CMB by bulk flows through the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect (kSZ), and weak gravitational lensing of primary CMB anisotropies by the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. After describing the pipeline and its implementation, we present the Websky maps, created from a realization of the cosmic web on our past light cone in the redshift interval 0<z<4.6 over the full-sky and a volume of ~(600 Gpc/h)^3 resolved with ~10^12 resolution elements. The Websky maps and halo catalog are publicly available at mocks.cita.utoronto.ca/websky.
Since the year 2000, adaptive optics (AO) has seen the emergence of a variety of new concepts addressing particular science needs; multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) is one of them. By correcting the atmospheric turbulence in 3D using several wavefront sensors and a tomographic phase reconstruction approach, MCAO aims to provide uniform diffraction limited images in the near-infrared over fields of view larger than 1 arcmin square, i.e., 10 to 20 times larger in area than classical single conjugated AO. In this review, we give a brief reminder of the AO principles and limitations, and then focus on aspects particular to MCAO, such as tomography and specific MCAO error sources. We present examples and results from past or current systems: MAD (Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator) and GeMS (Gemini MCAO System) for nighttime astronomy and the AO system, at Big Bear for solar astronomy. We examine MCAO performance (Strehl ratio up to 40percent in H band and full width at half maximum down to 52 mas in the case of MCAO), with a particular focus on photometric and astrometric accuracy, and conclude with considerations on the future of MCAO in the Extremely Large Telescope and post-HST era.