Browsing by Author "Bose, Sownak"

We investigate the accuracy of weak lensing simulations by comparing the results of five independently developed lensing simulation codes run on the same input N-body simulation. Our comparison focuses on the lensing convergence maps produced by the codes, and in particular on the corresponding PDFs, power spectra, and peak counts. We find that the convergence power spectra of the lensing codes agree to ≲ 2{{ per cent}} out to scales ℓ ≈ 4000. For lensing peak counts, the agreement is better than 5{{ per cent}} for peaks with signal-to-noise ≲ 6. We also discuss the systematic errors due to the Born approximation, line-of-sight discretization, particle noise, and smoothing. The lensing codes tested deal in markedly different ways with these effects, but they none-the-less display a satisfactory level of agreement. Our results thus suggest that systematic errors due to the operation of existing lensing codes should be small. Moreover their impact on the convergence power spectra for a lensing simulation can be predicted given its numerical details, which may then serve as a validation test.

The Beyond Ultra-deep Frontier Fields and Legacy Observations (BUFFALO) is a 101 orbit + 101 parallel Cycle 25 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury program taking data from 2018 to 2020. BUFFALO will expand existing coverage of the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) in Wide Field Camera 3/IR F105W, F125W, and F160W and Advanced Camera for Surveys/WFC F606W and F814W around each of the six HFF clusters and flanking fields. This additional area has not been observed by HST but is already covered by deep multiwavelength data sets, including Spitzer and Chandra. As with the original HFF program, BUFFALO is designed to take advantage of gravitational lensing from massive clusters to simultaneously find high-redshift galaxies that would otherwise lie below HST detection limits and model foreground clusters to study the properties of dark matter and galaxy assembly. The expanded area will provide the first opportunity to study both cosmic variance at high redshift and galaxy assembly in the outskirts of the large HFF clusters. Five additional orbits are reserved for transient follow-up. BUFFALO data including mosaics, value-added catalogs, and cluster mass distribution models will be released via MAST on a regular basis as the observations and analysis are completed for the six individual clusters.

We summarize astrophysical observations that can constrain the fundamental physics of dark matter in the era of LSST. We highlight theoretical work and observational facilities that will complement LSST. Astrophysical observations will guide other experimental efforts while probing unique regions of dark matter parameter space.