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Covering $\sim 5600\, \deg ^2$ to rms sensitivities of ∼70−100 $\mu$Jy beam−1, the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 2 (LoTSS-DR2) provides the largest low-frequency (∼150 MHz) radio catalogue to date, making it an excellent tool for large-area radio cosmology studies. In this work, we use LoTSS-DR2 sources to investigate the angular two-point correlation function of galaxies within the survey. We discuss systematics in the data and an improved methodology for generating random catalogues, compared to that used for LoTSS-DR1, before presenting the angular clustering for ∼900 000 sources ≥1.5 mJy and a peak signal-to-noise ≥ 7.5 across ∼80 per cent of the observed area. Using the clustering, we infer the bias assuming two evolutionary models. When fitting angular scales of $0.5 \le \theta \lt 5{^\circ }$, using a linear bias model, we find LoTSS-DR2 sources are biased tracers of the underlying matter, with a bias of $b_{\rm C}= 2.14^{+0.22}_{-0.20}$ (assuming constant bias) and $b_{\rm E}(z=0)= 1.79^{+0.15}_{-0.14}$ (for an evolving model, inversely proportional to the growth factor), corresponding to $b_{\rm E}= 2.81^{+0.24}_{-0.22}$ at the median redshift of our sample, assuming the LoTSS Deep Fields redshift distribution is representative of our data. This reduces to $b_{\rm C}= 2.02^{+0.17}_{-0.16}$ and $b_{\rm E}(z=0)= 1.67^{+0.12}_{-0.12}$ when allowing preferential redshift distributions from the Deep Fields to model our data. Whilst the clustering amplitude is slightly lower than LoTSS-DR1 (≥2 mJy), our study benefits from larger samples and improved redshift estimates.

 

We have studied the galaxy-group cross-correlations in redshift space for the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey. We use a set of mock GAMA galaxy and group catalogues to develop and test a novel ‘halo streaming’ model for redshift-space distortions. This treats 2-halo correlations via the streaming model, plus an empirical 1-halo term derived from the mocks, allowing accurate modelling into the non-linear regime. In order to probe the robustness of the growth rate inferred from redshift-space distortions, we divide galaxies by colour, and divide groups according to their total stellar mass, calibrated to total mass via gravitational lensing. We fit our model to correlation data, to obtain estimates of the perturbation growth rate, fσ8, validating parameter errors via the dispersion between different mock realizations. In both mocks and real data, we demonstrate that the results are closely consistent between different subsets of the group and galaxy populations, considering the use of correlation data down to some minimum projected radius, rmin. For the mock data, we can use the halo streaming model to below $r_{\rm min} = 5{\, h^{-1}\, \rm Mpc}$, finding that all subsets yield growth rates within about 3 per cent of each other, and consistent with the true value. For the actual GAMA data, the results are limited by cosmic variance: fσ8 = 0.29 ± 0.10 at an effective redshift of 0.20; but there is every reason to expect that this method will yield precise constraints from larger data sets of the same type, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) bright galaxy survey.

 

Despite the success of galaxy-scale strong gravitational lens studies with Hubble-quality imaging, a number of well-studied strong lenses remains small. As a result, robust comparisons of the lens models to theoretical predictions are difficult. This motivates our application of automated Bayesian lens modelling methods to observations from public data releases of overlapping large ground-based imaging and spectroscopic surveys: Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) and Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA), respectively. We use the open-source lens modelling software pyautolens to perform our analysis. We demonstrate the feasibility of strong lens modelling with large-survey data at lower resolution as a complementary avenue to studies that utilize more time-consuming and expensive observations of individual lenses at higher resolution. We discuss advantages and challenges, with special consideration given to determining background source redshifts from single-aperture spectra and to disentangling foreground lens and background source light. High uncertainties in the best-fitting parameters for the models due to the limits of optical resolution in ground-based observatories and the small sample size can be improved with future study. We give broadly applicable recommendations for future efforts, and with proper application, this approach could yield measurements in the quantities needed for robust statistical inference.

 

We evaluate the consistency between lensing and clustering based on measurements from Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey combined with galaxy–galaxy lensing from Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 3, Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC) Year 1, and Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS)-1000. We find good agreement between these lensing data sets. We model the observations using the Dark Emulator and fit the data at two fixed cosmologies: Planck (S8 = 0.83), and a Lensing cosmology (S8 = 0.76). For a joint analysis limited to large scales, we find that both cosmologies provide an acceptable fit to the data. Full utilization of the higher signal-to-noise small-scale measurements is hindered by uncertainty in the impact of baryon feedback and assembly bias, which we account for with a reasoned theoretical error budget. We incorporate a systematic inconsistency parameter for each redshift bin, A, that decouples the lensing and clustering. With a wide range of scales, we find different results for the consistency between the two cosmologies. Limiting the analysis to the bins for which the impact of the lens sample selection is expected to be minimal, for the Lensing cosmology, the measurements are consistent with A = 1; A = 0.91 ± 0.04 (A = 0.97 ± 0.06) using DES+KiDS (HSC). For the Planck case, we find a discrepancy: A = 0.79 ± 0.03 (A = 0.84 ± 0.05) using DES+KiDS (HSC). We demonstrate that a kinematic Sunyaev–Zeldovich-based estimate for baryonic effects alleviates some of the discrepancy in the Planck cosmology. This analysis demonstrates the statistical power of small-scale measurements; however, caution is still warranted given modelling uncertainties and foreground sample selection effects.

 

Abstract The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org . The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages. 

Abstract We use 47 gravitational wave sources from the Third LIGO–Virgo–Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC–3) to estimate the Hubble parameter H ( z ), including its current value, the Hubble constant H 0 . Each gravitational wave (GW) signal provides the luminosity distance to the source, and we estimate the corresponding redshift using two methods: the redshifted masses and a galaxy catalog. Using the binary black hole (BBH) redshifted masses, we simultaneously infer the source mass distribution and H ( z ). The source mass distribution displays a peak around 34 M ⊙ , followed by a drop-off. Assuming this mass scale does not evolve with the redshift results in a H ( z ) measurement, yielding H 0 = 68 − 8 + 12 km s − 1 Mpc − 1 (68% credible interval) when combined with the H 0 measurement from GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart. This represents an improvement of 17% with respect to the H 0 estimate from GWTC–1. The second method associates each GW event with its probable host galaxy in the catalog GLADE+ , statistically marginalizing over the redshifts of each event’s potential hosts. Assuming a fixed BBH population, we estimate a value of H 0 = 68 − 6 + 8 km s − 1 Mpc − 1 with the galaxy catalog method, an improvement of 42% with respect to our GWTC–1 result and 20% with respect to recent H 0 studies using GWTC–2 events. However, we show that this result is strongly impacted by assumptions about the BBH source mass distribution; the only event which is not strongly impacted by such assumptions (and is thus informative about H 0 ) is the well-localized event GW190814. 

Abstract We present the results of a model-based search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass X-ray binary Scorpius X-1 using LIGO detector data from the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. This is a semicoherent search that uses details of the signal model to coherently combine data separated by less than a specified coherence time, which can be adjusted to balance sensitivity with computing cost. The search covered a range of gravitational-wave frequencies from 25 to 1600 Hz, as well as ranges in orbital speed, frequency, and phase determined from observational constraints. No significant detection candidates were found, and upper limits were set as a function of frequency. The most stringent limits, between 100 and 200 Hz, correspond to an amplitude h 0 of about 10 −25 when marginalized isotropically over the unknown inclination angle of the neutron star’s rotation axis, or less than 4 × 10 −26 assuming the optimal orientation. The sensitivity of this search is now probing amplitudes predicted by models of torque balance equilibrium. For the usual conservative model assuming accretion at the surface of the neutron star, our isotropically marginalized upper limits are close to the predicted amplitude from about 70 to 100 Hz; the limits assuming that the neutron star spin is aligned with the most likely orbital angular momentum are below the conservative torque balance predictions from 40 to 200 Hz. Assuming a broader range of accretion models, our direct limits on gravitational-wave amplitude delve into the relevant parameter space over a wide range of frequencies, to 500 Hz or more.