1,721,143 research outputs found
Cosmological exploitation of cosmic void statistics: New numerical tools in the CosmoBolognaLib to extract cosmological constraints from the void size function
No full textContext. We present new numerical tools to analyse cosmic void catalogues, implemented inside the CosmoBolognaLib, a large set of open source C++/Python numerical libraries. Aims. The CosmoBolognaLib provides a common numerical environment for cosmological calculations. This work extends these libraries by adding new algorithms for cosmological analyses of cosmic voids, covering the existing gap between theory and observations. Methods. We implemented new methods to model the size function of cosmic voids, in both observed and simulated samples of dark matter and biased tracers. Moreover, we provide new numerical tools to construct unambiguous void catalogues. The latter are designed to be independent of the void finder, in order to allow a high versatility in comparing independent results. Results. The implemented open source software is available at the GitHub repository of the CosmoBolognaLib. We also provide a full doxygen documentation and some example codes that explain how to use these libraries
Cosmic voids in coupled dark energy cosmologies: The impact of halo bias
No full textIn this work, we analyse the properties of cosmic voids in standard and coupled dark energy cosmologies. Using large numerical simulations, we investigate the effects produced by the dark energy coupling on three statistics: the filling factor, the size distribution and the stacked profiles of cosmic voids.We find that the bias of the tracers of the density field used to identify the voids strongly influences the properties of the void catalogues, and, consequently, the possibility of using the identified voids as a probe to distinguish coupled dark energy models from the standard Λ cold dark matter cosmology. In fact, on one hand coupled dark energy models are characterized by an excess of large voids in the cold dark matter distribution as compared to the reference standard cosmology, due to their higher normalization of linear perturbations at low redshifts. Specifically, these models present an excess of large voids with Reff > 20, 15, 12h-1 Mpc, at z = 0, 0.55, 1, respectively. On the other hand, we do not find any significant difference in the properties of the voids detected in the distribution of collapsed dark matter haloes. These results imply that the tracer bias has a significant impact on the possibility of using cosmic void catalogues to probe cosmology
Validating the methodology for constraining the linear growth rate from clustering anisotropies
Full text linkRedshift-space clustering distortions provide one of the most powerful probes to test the gravity theory on the largest cosmological scales. We perform a systematic validation study of the state-of-the-art statistical methods currently used to constrain the linear growth rate from redshift-space distortions in the galaxy two-point correlation function. The numerical pipelines are tested on mock halo catalogues extracted from large N-body simulations of the standard cosmological framework. We consider both the monopole and quadrupole multipole moments of the redshift-space two-point correlation function, as well as the radial and transverse clustering wedges, in the comoving scale range 10 < r[h(-1) Mpc] < 55. Moreover, we investigate the impact of redshift measurement errors on the growth rate and linear bias measurements due to the assumptions in the redshift-space distortion model. Considering both the dispersion model and two widely used models based on perturbation theory, we find that the linear growth rate is underestimated by about 5-10 per cent at z < 1, while limiting the analysis at larger scales, r > 30 h(-1) Mpc, the discrepancy is reduced below 5 per cent. At higher redshifts, we find instead an overall good agreement between measurements and model predictions. Though this accuracy is good enough for clustering analyses in current redshift surveys, the models have to be further improved not to introduce significant systematics in RSD constraints from next-generation galaxy surveys. The effect of redshift errors is degenerate with the one of small-scale random motions, and can be marginalized over in the statistical analysis, not introducing any statistically significant bias in the linear growth constraints, especially at z >= 1
New constraints on Ï8 from a joint analysis of stacked gravitational lensing and clustering of galaxy clusters
Full text linkThe joint analysis of clustering and stacked gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters in large surveys can constrain the formation and evolution of structures and the cosmological parameters. On scales outside a few virial radii, the halo bias, b, is linear and the lensing signal is dominated by the correlated distribution of matter around galaxy clusters. We discuss a method to measure the power spectrum amplitude σ8 and b based on a minimal modelling. We considered a sample of ̃120 000 clusters photometrically selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.6. The autocorrelation was studied through the two-point function of a subsample of ̃70 000 clusters; the matter-halo correlation was derived from the weak lensing signal of the subsample of ̃1200 clusters with Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey data. We obtained a direct measurement of b, which increases with mass in agreement with predictions of the Λ cold dark matter paradigm. Assuming ΩM = 0.3, we found σ8 = 0.79 ± 0.16. We used the same clusters for measuring both lensing and clustering and the estimate of σ8 did require neither the mass-richness relation, nor the knowledge of the selection function, nor the modelling of b. With an additional theoretical prior on the bias, we obtained σ8 = 0.75 ± 0.08
Cosmological exploitation of the size function of cosmic voids identified in the distribution of biased tracers
Full text linkCosmic voids are large underdense regions that, together with galaxy clusters, filaments and walls, build-up the large-scale structure of the Universe. The void size function provides a powerful probe to test the cosmological framework. However, to fully exploit this statistics, the void sample has to be properly cleaned from spurious objects. Furthermore, the bias of the mass tracers used to detect these regions has to be taken into account in the size function model. In our work, we test a cleaning algorithm and a new void size function model on a set of simulated dark matter halo catalogues, with different mass and redshift selections, to investigate the statistics of voids identified in a biased mass density field. We then investigate how the density field tracers' bias affects the detected size of voids. The main result of this analysis is a new model of the size function, parametrized in terms of the linear effective bias of the tracers used, which is straightforwardly inferred from the large-scale two-point correlation function. This method is a crucial step in exploiting real surveys. The proposed size function model has been accurately calibrated on halo catalogues, and used to validate the possibility to provide forecasts on the cosmological constraints, namely on the matter density contrast, Omega(M), and on the normalization of the linear matter power spectrum, sigma(8), at different redshifts
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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