Author: Samuel Farrens

I have been a postdoctoral researcher at CEA Saclay since October 2015. I am currently working on the DEDALE project and the Euclid mission with Jean-Luc Starck. My background is in optical detection of clusters of galaxies and photometric redshift estimation. I am now branching out into the field of PSF estimation using sparse signal processing techniques.
Valeria Pettorino: Making an impact in Space, Cosmos and Mentoring

Valeria Pettorino: Making an impact in Space, Cosmos and Mentoring

Posted on by Samuel Farrens

Valeria’s’ fascination with the world of science first began as a young child, in part thanks to her uncle’s influence. During the course of our discussion she recalls how she enjoyed a mixture of subjects when at school: “At that point in time I was not into cosmology, but I liked science, logic and mathematics and being able to combine those subjects with artistic projects, creative writing and travelling. My uncle was also a physicist and would share his passion for science fiction, strings and extra dimensions, which I found inspiring at a young age.” Valeria shares that some of her favourite science fiction authors are Jack Vance and Joseph Farmer.

Heraklion: A "Titan" from ITE brings to Crete the "ERA seat" of astroinformatics

Heraklion: A “Titan” from ITE brings to Crete the “ERA seat” of astroinformatics

Posted on by Samuel Farrens

Μια νέα επιστημονική κατεύθυνση στον αναδυόμενο τομέα της αστροπληροφορικής εγκαινιάζεται στο Ινστιτούτο Αστρονομίας του Ιδρύματος Τεχνολογίας και Έρευνας, που εδρεύει στο Ηράκλειο, χάρη στη δημιουργία μιας “έδρας ERA (European Research Area)” από την Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή.

 

UNIONS: The impact of systematic errors on weak-lensing peak counts

UNIONS: The impact of systematic errors on weak-lensing peak counts

Posted on by Samuel Farrens

 

Authors: E. Ayçoberry, V. Ajani, A. Guinot, M. Kilbinger, V. Pettorino, S. Farrens, J.-L. Starck, R. Gavazzi, M. Hudson
Journal: A&A
Year: 2022
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv

Abstract

Context. The Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS) is an ongoing deep photometric multi-band survey of the Northern sky. As part of UNIONS, the Canada-France Imaging Survey (CFIS) provides r-band data which we use to study weak-lensing peak counts for cosmological inference.
Aims. We assess systematic effects for weak-lensing peak counts and their impact on cosmological parameters for the UNIONS survey. In particular, we present results on local calibration, metacalibration shear bias, baryonic feedback, the source galaxy redshift estimate, intrinsic alignment, and the cluster member dilution.

Methods. For each uncertainty and systematic effect, we describe our mitigation scheme and the impact on cosmological parameter constraints. We obtain constraints on cosmological parameters from MCMC using CFIS data and MassiveNuS N-body simulations as a model for peak counts statistics.
Results. Depending on the calibration (local versus global, and the inclusion of the residual multiplicative shear bias), the mean matter density parameter Ωm can shift up to −0.024 (−0.5σ). We also see that including baryonic corrections can shift Ωm by +0.027 (+0.5σ) with respect to the DM-only simulations. Reducing the impact of the intrinsic alignment and cluster member dilution through signal-to-noise cuts can lead to a shift in Ωm of +0.027 (+0.5σ). Finally, with a mean redshift uncertainty of ∆z ̄ = 0.03, we see that the shift of Ωm (+0.001 which corresponds to +0.02σ) is not significant.

Conclusions. This paper investigates for the first time with UNIONS weak-lensing data and peak counts the impact of systematic effects. The value of Ωm is the most impacted and can shift up to ∼ 0.03 which corresponds to 0.5σ depending on the choices for each systematics. We expect constraints to become more reliable with future (larger) data catalogues, for which the current pipeline will provide a starting point. The code used to obtain the results is available in the following Github repository.

ShapePipe: a new shape measurement pipeline and weak-lensing application to UNIONS/CFIS data

ShapePipe: a new shape measurement pipeline and weak-lensing application to UNIONS/CFIS data

Posted on by Samuel Farrens

 

Authors: A. Guinot, M. Kilbinger, S. Farrens, A. Peel, A. Pujol, M. Schmitz, J.-L. Starck, T. Erben, R. Gavazzi, S. Gwyn, M. Hudson,  H. Hiledebrandt, T. Liaudat , et. al
Journal: A&A
Year: 2022
DOI:  
Download: ADS | arXiv

Abstract

UNIONS is an ongoing collaboration that will provide the largest deep photometric survey of the Northern sky in four optical bands to date. As part of this collaboration, CFIS is taking r-band data with an average seeing of 0.65 arcsec, which is complete to magnitude 24.5 and thus ideal for weak-lensing studies. We perform the first weak-lensing analysis of CFIS r-band data over an area spanning 1700 deg2 of the sky. We create a catalogue with measured shapes for 40 million galaxies, corresponding to an effective density of 6.8 galaxies per square arcminute, and demonstrate a low level of systematic biases. This work serves as the basis for further cosmological studies using the full UNIONS survey of 4800 deg2 when completed. Here we present ShapePipe, a newly developed weak-lensing pipeline. This pipeline makes use of state-of-the-art methods such as Ngmix for accurate galaxy shape measurement. Shear calibration is performed with metacalibration. We carry out extensive validation tests on the Point Spread Function (PSF), and on the galaxy shapes. In addition, we create realistic image simulations to validate the estimated shear. We quantify the PSF model accuracy and show that the level of systematics is low as measured by the PSF residuals. Their effect on the shear two-point correlation function is sub-dominant compared to the cosmological contribution on angular scales <100 arcmin. The additive shear bias is below 5x10−4, and the residual multiplicative shear bias is at most 10−3 as measured on image simulations. Using COSEBIs we show that there are no significant B-modes present in second-order shear statistics. We present convergence maps and see clear correlations of the E-mode with known cluster positions. We measure the stacked tangential shear profile around Planck clusters at a significance higher than 4σ.