We present a catalog of over 130,000 quasars candidates with NIR photometric properties, with an areal coverage of approximately 1,200 deg^2. This is achieved by matching the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in the optical ugriz bands, to the UKIRT Infrared Digital Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS) in the near-infrared YJHK bands. We match the ~1 million SDSS DR6 Photometric Quasar catalog to Data Release 3 of the UKIDSS LAS (ULAS), and produce a catalog with 130,827 objects with detections in one or more NIR bands, of which 74,351 objects have optical and K-band detections and 42,133 objects have the full 9-band photometry. The majority ~85 of the SDSS objects were not matched simply because there were not covered by the ULAS. Our matched catalog has a surface density of ~53 deg^-2 for K >18.27 objects; tests using our matched catalog, along with data from the UKIDSS DXS, implies that our limiting magnitude is i ~ 20.6. Color-redshift diagrams, for the optical and NIR, show the close agreement between our matched catalog and recent quasar color models at redshift z > 2.0, while at higher redshifts, the models generally appear to be bluer than the mean observed quasar colors. The gJK and giK color-spaces are used to examine methods of differentiating between stars and (mid-redshift) quasars, key to currently ongoing quasar surveys. Finally, we report on the NIR photometric properties of high, z>4.6, and very high, z>5.7, redshift previously discovered quasars.
We present a sample of 8498 quasars with both SDSS $ugriz$ optical and UKIDSS $YJHK$ near-IR photometric data. With this sample, we obtain the median colour-z relations based on 7400 quasars with magnitude uncertainties less than 0.1mag in all bands. By analyzing the quasar colours, we propose an empirical criterion in the $Y-K$ vs. $g-z$ colour-colour diagram to separate stars and quasars with redshift $z<4$, and two other criteria for selecting high-z quasars. Using the SDSS-UKIDSS colour-z relations, we estimate the photometric redshifts of 8498 SDSS-UKIDSS quasars, and find that 85.0% of t…
We investigate the range of covering factors (determined from the ratio of IR to UV/optical luminosity) seen in luminous type 1 quasars using a combination of data from the WISE, UKIDSS and SDSS surveys. Accretion disk (UV/optical) and obscuring dust (IR) luminosities are measured via the use of a simple three component SED model. We use these estimates to investigate the distribution of covering factors and its relationship to both accretion luminosity and IR SED shape. The distribution of covering factors (f_C) is observed to be log-normal, with a bias-corrected mean of <log10 f_C>=-0.41 and…
We present the multiwavelength - ultraviolet to mid-infrared - catalog of the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) field observed as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). Based on publicly available data, the catalog includes: the CANDELS data from the Hubble Space Telescope (near-infrared WFC3 F125W and F160W data and visible ACS F606W and F814W data), u-band data from CFHT/Megacam, B, V, Rc, i' and z' band data from Subaru/Suprime-Cam, Y and Ks band data from VLT/HAWK-I, J, H and K bands data from UKIDSS (Data Release 8), and Spitzer/IRAC data (3.6, …
We combine data from the MGC, SDSS and UKIDSS LAS surveys to produce ugrizYJHK luminosity functions and densities from within a common, low redshift volume (z<0.1, ~71,000 h_1^-3 Mpc^3 for L* systems) with 100 per cent spectroscopic completeness. In the optical the fitted Schechter functions are comparable in shape to those previously reported values but with higher normalisations (typically 0, 30, 20, 15, 5 per cent higher phi*-values in u, g, r, i, z respectively over those reported by the SDSS team). We attribute these to differences in the redshift ranges probed, incompleteness, and adopte…
Identifications of quasars at intermediate redshifts (2.2<z<3.5) are inefficient in most previous quasar surveys as their optical colors are similar to those of stars. The near-IR K-band excess technique has been suggested to overcome this difficulty. Our study also proposed to use optical/near-IR colors for selecting z<4 quasars. To this method, we selected 105 unidentified bright targets with i<18.5 from the quasar candidates of SDSS DR6 with both SDSS ugriz optical and UKIDSS YJHK near-IR photometric data, which satisfy our proposed Y-K/g-z criterion and have photometric redshifts between 2…
We present observations of a new double-image gravitational lens system, ULAS J082016.1+081216, of image separation 2.3" and high (~6) flux ratio. The system is selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic quasar list using new high-quality images from the UKIRT Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). The lensed quasar has a source redshift of 2.024, and we identify the lens galaxy as a faint red object of redshift 0.803+/-0.001. Three other objects from the UKIDSS survey, selected in the same way, were found not to be lens systems. Together with the earlier lens found using this method, the SDS…
We report the discovery of two field brown dwarfs, ULAS J0128-0041 and ULAS J0321+0051, and the rediscovery of ULAS J0226+0051 (IfA 0230-Z1), in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) southern equatorial stripe. They are found in the course of our follow-up observation program of 1 um excess sources in the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Infrared Deep Sky Survey. The Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs spectra at red optical wavelengths (6500-10500 A) are presented, which reveal that they are early-T dwarfs. The classification is also supported by their optical to near-infrared colors. It is note…
We report the results of optical identification of a sample of RC catalog radio sources with the FIRST and SDSS surveys. For 320 sources identified with NVSS and FIRST objects we perform optical identification with the SDSS survey. When selecting optical candidates we make maximum use of the information about the structure of radio sources as provided by the FIRST survey images. We find optical candidates for about 80% of all radio sources.
Analysis of the RC catalog sample in the region overlapping with the regions of the FIRST and SDSS surveys: I. Identification of sources with the VLSS, TXS, NVSS, FIRST, and GB6 catalogs
We present a catalog of 37,842 quasars in the SDSS Data Release 7, which have counterparts within 6" in the WISE Preliminary Data Release. The overall WISE detection rate of the SDSS quasars is 86.7%, and it decreases to less than 50.0% when the quasar magnitude is fainter than $i=20.5$. We derive the median color-redshift relations based on this SDSS-WISE quasar sample and apply them to estimate the photometric redshifts of the SDSS-WISE quasars. We find that by adding the WISE W1- and W2-band data to the SDSS photometry we can increase the photometric redshift reliability, defined as the per…
We present the results of a pilot survey to find dust-reddened quasars by matching the FIRST radio catalog to the UKIDSS near-infrared survey, and using optical data from SDSS to select objects with very red colors. The deep K-band limit provided by UKIDSS allows for finding more heavily-reddened quasars at higher redshifts as compared with previous work using FIRST and 2MASS. We selected 87 candidates with K<=17.0 from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS) First Data Release (DR1) which covers 190 deg2. These candidates reach up to ~1.5 magnitudes below the 2MASS limit and obey the color criteri…
Sutter et al. have responded to the criticisms we made of their cosmic void catalogue in our recent paper presenting an alternative catalogue (Nadathur & Hotchkiss 2013). Unfortunately, their response contains several statements which are incorrect, as we point out in this note.
Recently, Nadathur & Hotchkiss (2013) submitted a paper discussing a new cosmic void catalog. This paper includes claims about the void catalog described in Sutter et al. (2012). In this note, we respond to those claims, clarify some discrepancies between the text of Sutter et al. (2012) and the most recent version of the catalog, and provide some comments on the differences between our catalog and that of Nadathur & Hotchkiss (2013). All updates and documentation for our catalog are available at http://www.cosmicvoids.net.
We present a cosmic void catalog using the large-scale structure galaxy catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This galaxy catalog is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12 and is the final catalog of SDSS-III. We take into account the survey boundaries, masks, and angular and radial selection functions, and apply the ZOBOV void finding algorithm to the galaxy catalog. We identify a total of 10,643 voids. After making quality cuts to ensure that the voids represent real underdense regions, we obtain 1,228 voids with effective radii spanning the ra…
In this work we present a new catalogue of Cosmic Filaments obtained from the latest Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) public data. In order to detect filaments, we implement a version of the Subspace-Constrained Mean-Shift algorithm, boosted by Machine Learning techniques. This allows us to detect cosmic filaments as one-dimensional maxima in the galaxy density distribution. Our filament catalogue uses the cosmological sample of SDSS, including Data Release 16, so it inherits its sky footprint (aside from small border effects) and redshift coverage. In particular, this means that, taking advant…
We have constructed a set of supercluster catalogues for the galaxies from the SDSS survey main and luminous red galaxy (LRG) flux-limited samples. To delineate superclusters, we calculated luminosity density fields using the B3-spline kernel of the radius of 8 Mpc/h for the main sample and 16 Mpc/h for the LRG sample and define regions with densities over a selected threshold as superclusters, while utilising almost the whole volume of both samples. We created two types of catalogues, one with an adaptive local threshold and a set of catalogues with different global thresholds. We describe th…
We present a compilation of properties of the 105,783 quasars in the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7) quasar catalog. In this value-added product, we compile continuum and emission line measurements around the Halpha, Hbeta, MgII and CIV regions, as well as other quantities such as radio properties, broad absorption line quasar (BALQSO) flags, and disk emitters. We also compile virial black hole mass estimates based on various calibrations. For the fiducial virial mass estimates we use the Vestergaard & Peterson (VP06) calibrations for Hbeta and CIV, and our own calibration for MgII which matches the…
We present a new sample of purely near infra-red selected KVega<16.5 extremely red ((J-K)>2.5) quasar candidates at z~2 from 900 sq deg of data in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS). Five of these are spectroscopically confirmed to be heavily reddened Type 1 AGN with broad emission lines bringing our total sample of reddened quasars from the UKIDSS-LAS to 12 at z=1.4-2.7. At these redshifts, Ha (6563A) is in the K-band. However, the mean Ha equivalent width of the reddened quasars is only ten per cent larger than that of the optically selected population and cannot explain the extreme colours.…
We present the SDSS-XDQSO quasar targeting catalog for efficient flux-based quasar target selection down to the faint limit of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) catalog, even at medium redshifts (2.5 <~ z <~ 3) where the stellar contamination is significant. We build models of the distributions of stars and quasars in flux space down to the flux limit by applying the extreme-deconvolution method to estimate the underlying density. We convolve this density with the flux uncertainties when evaluating the probability that an object is a quasar. This approach results in a targeting algorithm tha…
We evaluate the performance of the SDSS DR8 redMaPPer photometric cluster catalog by comparing it to overlapping X-ray and SZ selected catalogs from the literature. We confirm the redMaPPer photometric redshifts are nearly unbiased (<Δz> < 0.005), have low scatter (σ_z ~ 0.006-0.02, depending on redshift), and have a low catastrophic failure rate (~ 1%). Both the T_X-λ and Mgas-λ scaling relations are consistent with a mass scatter of σ_{\ln M|λ} ~ 25%, albeit with a ~ 1% outlier rate due to projection effects. This failure rate is somewhat lower than that expected for the full cluster sample,…
Utilizing the SDSS-DR13 spectroscopic dataset, we create a new publicly-available catalog of 1,800 galaxy clusters (GalWeight cluster catalog, $\mathtt{GalWCat19}$) and a corresponding catalog of 34,471 identified member galaxies. The clusters are identified from overdensities in redshift-phase space. The GalWeight technique introduced in Abdullah, Wilson and Klypin (AWK18) is then applied to identify cluster members. The completeness of the cluster catalog ($\mathtt{GalWCat19}$) and the procedure followed to determine cluster mass are tested on the Bolshoi N-body simulations. The 1,800 $\math…
We present a new galaxy cluster catalog constructed from SDSS DR9 using an Adaptive Matched Filter technique. Our main catalog has 46,479 galaxy clusters with richness $Λ_{200} > 20$ in the redshift range 0.045 $\le z <$ 0.641 in $\sim$11,500 $deg^{2}$ of the sky. Angular position, richness, core and virial radii and redshift estimates for these clusters, as well as their error analysis are provided. We also provide an extended version with a lower richness cut, containing 79,368 clusters. This version, in addition to the clusters in the main catalog, also contains those clusters (with richnes…
We present a new cluster catalog extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6) using an adaptive matched filter (AMF) cluster finder. We identify 69,173 galaxy clusters in the redshift range 0.045 $\le z <$ 0.78 in 8420 sq. deg. of the sky. We provide angular position, redshift, richness, core and virial radii estimates for these clusters, as well as an error analysis for each of these quantities. We also provide a catalog of more than 205,000 galaxies representing the three brightest galaxies in the $r$ band which are possible BCG candidates. We show basic properties o…
We present the fifth edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog, which is based upon the SDSS Seventh Data Release. The catalog, which contains 105,783 spectroscopically confirmed quasars, represents the conclusion of the SDSS-I and SDSS-II quasar survey. The catalog consists of the SDSS objects that have luminosities larger than M_i = -22.0 (in a cosmology with H_0 = 70 km/s/Mpc Omega_M = 0.3, and Omega_Lambda = 0.7) have at least one emission line with FWHM larger than 1000 km/s or have interesting/complex absorption features, are fainter than i > 15.0 and have highly reli…
We produce the most comprehensive public void catalog to date using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 main sample out to redshift z=0.2 and the luminous red galaxy sample out to z=0.44. Using a modified version of the parameter-free void finder ZOBOV, we fully take into account the presence of the survey boundary and masks. Our strategy for finding voids is thus appropriate for any survey configuration. We produce two distinct catalogs: a complete catalog including voids near any masks, which would be appropriate for void galaxy surveys, and a bias-free catalog of voids away from any…
The identifications of quasars in the redshift range 2.2<z<3 are known to be very inefficient as their optical colors are indistinguishable from those of stars. Recent studies have proposed to use optical variability or near-IR colors to improve the identifications of the missing quasars in this redshift range. Here we present a case study by combining both factors. We select a sample of 70 quasar candidates from variables in SDSS Stripe 82, which are non-UV excess sources and have UKIDSS near-IR public data. They are clearly separated into two parts on the Y-K/g-z color-color diagram, and 59 …
We present and describe a catalog of galaxy photometric redshifts (photo-z's) for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Coadd Data. We use the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique to calculate photo-z's and the Nearest Neighbor Error (NNE) method to estimate photo-z errors for $\sim$ 13 million objects classified as galaxies in the coadd with $r < 24.5$. The photo-z and photo-z error estimators are trained and validated on a sample of $\sim 83,000$ galaxies that have SDSS photometry and spectroscopic redshifts measured by the SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7), the Canadian Network for Observational…
We identified 132,684 clusters in the redshift range of 0.05<z<0.8 from SDSS DR8. The spectroscopic redshifts of 52,683 clusters have been included in the catalog using SDSS DR9 data. We found that BCGs are more luminous in richer clusters and at higher redshifts.
We present photometric recalibration of the Subaru Deep Field (SDF) and Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS). Recently, Yamanoi et al. (2012) suggested the existence of a discrepancy between the SDF and SXDS catalogs. We have used the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 (DR8) catalog and compared stars in common between SDF/SXDS and SDSS. We confirmed that there exists a 0.12 mag offset in B-band between the SDF and SXDS catalogs. Moreover, we found that significant zero point offsets in i-band (~ 0.10 mag) and z-band (~ 0.14 mag) need to be introduced to the SDF/SXDS catalogs to ma…
(Abridged) Galaxies with polar rings (PRGs) are a unique class of extragalactic objects allowing to investigate a wide range of problems, linked with the formation and evolution of galaxies, and to study the properties of their dark haloes. The progress in the study of PRGs is constrained by a small number of known objects of this type. Up to date, we can only attribute about two dozens of kinematically-confirmed galaxies to this class, mostly from Whitmore et al. (1990) catalogue. We present a new catalogue of PRGs based on the results of the original Galaxy Zoo project. Based on the prelimin…
We present the results of a search for red QSOs using a selection based on optical imaging from SDSS and near-infrared imaging from UKIDSS. For a sample of 58 candidates 46 (79%) are confirmed to be QSOs. The QSOs are predominantly dust-reddened except a handul at redshifts z>3.5. The dust is most likely located in the QSO host galaxies. 4 (7%) of the candidates turned out to be late-type stars, and another 4 (7%) are compact galaxies. The remaining 4 objects we could not identify. In terms of their optical spectra the QSOs are similar to the QSOs selected in the FIRST-2MASS red Quasar survey …
We present a catalogue of galaxy clusters detected in the Planck all-sky Compton parameter maps and identified using data from the WISE and SDSS surveys. The catalogue comprises about 3000 clusters in the SDSS fields. We expect the completeness of this catalogue to be high for clusters with masses larger than M_500 =~ 3x10^14 Msun, located at redshifts z<0.7. At redshifts above z=~0.4, the catalogue contains approximately an order of magnitude more clusters than the 2nd Planck Catalogue of Sunyaev-Zeldovich sources in the same fields of the sky. This catalogue can be used for identification of…
The results of a large area, ~600 deg^2, K-band flux-limited spectroscopic survey for luminous quasars are presented. The survey utilises the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS) in regions of sky within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint. The K-band excess (KX) of all quasars with respect to Galactic stars is exploited in combination with a photometric redshift/classification scheme to identify quasar candidates for spectroscopic follow-up observations. The data contained within this investigation will be able to provide new constraints on the fraction of…
The main feature of the spatial large-scale galaxy distribution is its intricate network of galaxy filaments. This network is spanned by the galaxy locations that can be interpreted as a three-dimensional point distribution. The global properties of the point process can be measured by different statistical methods, which, however, do not describe directly the structure elements. The morphology of the large scale structure, on the other hand, is an important property of the galaxy distribution. Here we apply an object point process with interactions (the Bisous model) to trace and extract the …
We have analysed a sample of 1292 4.5 micron-selected galaxies at z>=3, over 0.6 square degrees of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Survey (UKIDSS) Ultra Deep Survey (UDS). Using photometry from the U band through 4.5 microns, we have obtained photometric redshifts and derived stellar masses for our sources. Only two of our galaxies potentially lie at z>5. We have studied the galaxy stellar mass function at 3<=z<5, based on the 1213 galaxies in our catalogue with [4.5]<= 24.0. We find that: i) the number density of M > 10^11 Msun galaxies increased by a factor > 10 between z=5 and 3, indicating that th…
We study the properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) drawn from a catalogue of more than 69000 clusters in the SDSS DR6 based on the adaptive matched filter technique (AMF, Szabo et al., 2010). Our sample consists of more than 14300 galaxies in the redshift range 0.1-0.3. We test the catalog by showing that it includes well-known BCGs which lie in the SDSS footprint. We characterize the BCGs in terms of r-band luminosities and optical colours as well as their trends with redshift. In particular, we define and study the fraction of blue BCGs, namely those that are likely to be missed by…
We present catalogues of voids for the SDSS DR7 redshift survey and for Millennium I simulation mock data. We aim to compare the observations with simulations based on a $Λ$CDM model and a semi-analytic galaxy formation model. We use the void statistics as a test for these models. We assembled a mock catalogue that closely resembles the SDSS DR7 catalogue and carried out a parallel statistical analysis of the observed and simulated catalogue. We find that in the observation and the simulation, voids tend to be equally spherical. The total volume occupied by the voids and their total number are…
We present 2000 mock galaxy catalogs for the analysis of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Emission Line Galaxy (ELG) sample of the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16 (eBOSS DR16). Each mock catalog has a number density of $6.7 \times 10^{-4} h^3 \rm Mpc^{-3}$, covering a redshift range from 0.6 to 1.1. The mocks are calibrated to small-scale eBOSS ELG clustering measurements at scales of around 10 $h^{-1}$Mpc. The mock catalogs are generated using a combination of GaLAxy Mocks (GLAM) simulations and the Quick Particle-Mesh (QPM) method. GLAM simulations are use…
We describe redMaPPer, a new red-sequence cluster finder specifically designed to make optimal use of ongoing and near-future large photometric surveys. The algorithm has multiple attractive features: (1) It can iteratively self-train the red-sequence model based on minimal spectroscopic training sample, an important feature for high redshift surveys; (2) It can handle complex masks with varying depth; (3) It produces cluster-appropriate random points to enable large-scale structure studies; (4) All clusters are assigned a full redshift probability distribution P(z); (5) Similarly, clusters ca…
We compare the Planck Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) cluster sample (PSZ1) to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) redMaPPer catalog, finding that all Planck clusters within the redMaPPer mask and within the redshift range probed by redMaPPer are contained in the redMaPPer cluster catalog. These common clusters define a tight scaling relation in the richness-SZ mass ($λ$--$M_{SZ}$) plane, with an intrinsic scatter in richness of $σ_{λ|M_{SZ}} = 0.266 \pm 0.017$. The corresponding intrinsic scatter in true cluster halo mass at fixed richness is $\approx 21\%$. The regularity of this scaling relation is …
We compile a sample of X-ray-selected galaxy groups and clusters from the XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue (2XMMi-DR3) with optical confirmation and redshift measurement from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The X-ray cluster candidates were selected from the 2XMMi-DR3 catalogue in the footprint of the SDSS-DR7. We developed a finding algorithm to search for overdensities of galaxies at the positions of the X-ray cluster candidates in the photometric redshift space and to measure the redshifts of the clusters from the SDSS data. The detection algorithm provides the photometric red…
The study of the interesting cosmological properties of voids in the Universe depends on the efficient and robust identification of such voids in galaxy redshift surveys. Recently, Sutter et al. (2012) have published a public catalogue of voids in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 main galaxy and luminous red galaxy samples, using the void-finding algorithm ZOBOV, which is based on the watershed transform. We examine the properties of this catalogue and show that it suffers from several problems and inconsistencies, including the identification of some extremely overdense regions as …
We present a sample of 383 X-ray selected galaxy groups and clusters with spectroscopic redshift measurements (up to z ~ 0.79) from the 2XMMi/SDSS Galaxy Cluster Survey. The X-ray cluster candidates were selected as serendipitously detected sources from the 2XMMi-DR3 catalogue that were located in the footprint of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-DR7). The cluster galaxies with available spectroscopic redshifts were selected from the SDSS-DR10. We developed an algorithm for identifying the cluster candidates that are associated with spectroscopically targeted luminous red galaxies and for co…
We apply the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) test to the stacked voids identified using the large-scale structure galaxy catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This galaxy catalog is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12 and is the final catalog of SDSS-III. We also use 1000 mock galaxy catalogs that match the geometry, density, and clustering properties of the BOSS sample in order to characterize the statistical uncertainties of our measurements and take into account systematic errors such as redshift space distortions. For both BOSS data and mock catalog…
We apply a friends-of-friends algorithm to an enhanced SDSS DR12 spectroscopic catalog including redshift from literature to construct a catalog of $1588~N\ge3$ compact groups of galaxies containing 5179 member galaxies and covering the redshift range $0.01 < z < 0.19$. This catalog contains 18 times as many systems and reaches 3 times the depth of similar catalog of Barton et al. (1996). We construct catalogs from both magnitude-limited and volume-limited galaxy samples. Like Barton et al. (1996) we omit the frequently applied isolation criterion in the compact group selection algorithm. Thus…
This paper presents the identification of galaxy clusters from the photometric redshift catalog based on three imaging surveys of SCUSS, SDSS, and unWISE. By applying a fast clustering algorithm, we obtain a total of 19,610 clusters in the redshift range of $0.05 < z < 0.65$ over a sky area of about 3,700 deg$^2$ in the south Galactic gap. Monte Carlo simulations show that the false detection rate is about 8.9\%. The redshift uncertainty is estimated to be about 0.013. The mass and richness of detected clusters are derived through the calibration based on the measurements of X-ray emission and…
High redshift quasars (HZQs) with redshifts of z >~ 6 are so rare that any photometrically-selected sample of sources with HZQ-like colours is likely to be dominated by Galactic stars and brown dwarfs scattered from the stellar locus. It is impractical to reobserve all such candidates, so an alternative approach was developed in which Bayesian model comparison techniques are used to calculate the probability that a candidate is a HZQ, P_q, by combining models of the quasar and star populations with the photometric measurements of the object. This method was motivated specifically by the large …
We extend the catalogue of two-dimensional, PSF-corrected de Vacouleurs, Sersic, de Vacouleurs+Exponential, and Sersic+Exponential fits of ~7x10^5 galaxies presented in Meert, Vikram & Bernardi (2015) to include the g- and i-bands. Fits are analysed using the physically motivated flagging system presented in the original text, making adjustments for the differing signal-to-noise when necessary. We compare the fits in each of the g-, r-, and i-bands. Fixed aperture magnitudes and colours are also provided for all galaxies. The catalogues are available in electronic format.
In the last few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in obtaining observational bounds on the graviton mass, following the detection of gravitational waves, because of the versatility of massive graviton theories in resolving multiple problems in cosmology and fundamental physics. In this work, we apply the method proposed in Rana et al.(arXiv:1801.03309), which consists of looking for Yukawa-like fall off in the gravitational potential, to stacked galaxy cluster catalogs from three disparate surveys. These include catalogs from 2500 sq. degree SPT-SZ survey, the Planck all-sky SZ ca…
We present one thousand mock galaxy catalogues for the analysis of the Low Redshift Sample (LOWZ, effective redshift z ~ 10.32) of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Releases 10 and 11. These mocks have been created following the PTHalos method of Manera13 et al. (2013) revised to include new developments. The main improvement is the introduction of a redshift dependence in the Halo Occupation Distribution in order to account for the change of the galaxy number density with redshift. These mock catalogues are used in the analyses of the LOWZ galaxy clustering by the BOSS collabor…
Accurate photometric redshifts for large samples of galaxies are among the main products of modern multiband digital surveys. Over the last decade, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has become a sort of benchmark against which to test the various methods. We present an application of a new method to the estimation of photometric redshifts for the galaxies in the SDSS Data Release 9 (SDSS-DR9). Photometric redshifts for more than 143 million galaxies were produced and made available at the URL: http://dame.dsf.unina.it/catalog/DR9PHOTOZ/. The MLPQNA (Multi Layer Perceptron with Quasi Newton A…
The "cosmic web", the filamentary large-scale structure in a cold dark matter Universe, is readily apparent via galaxy tracers in spectroscopic surveys. However, the underlying dark matter structure is as of yet unobservable and mapping the diffuse gas permeating it lies beyond practical observational capabilities. A recently developed technique, inspired by the growth and movement of Physarum polycephalum "slime mold", has been used to map the cosmic web of a low redshift sub-sample of the SDSS spectroscopic galaxy catalog. This model, the Monte Carlo Physarum Machine (MCPM) was shown to prom…
We present a galaxy cluster survey based on XMM-Newton observations that are located in Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The survey covers an area of 11.25 deg$^2$. The X-ray cluster candidates were selected as serendipitously extended detected sources from the third XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue (3XMM-DR5). A cross-correlation of the candidate list that comprises 94 objects with recently published X-ray and optically selected cluster catalogues provided optical confirmations and redshift estimates for about half of the candidate sample. We present a catalogue of X…
We investigate the quality of associations of astronomical sources from multi-wavelength observations using simulated detections that are realistic in terms of their astrometric accuracy, small-scale clustering properties and selection functions. We present a general method to build such mock catalogs for studying associations, and compare the statistics of cross-identifications based on angular separation and Bayesian probability criteria. In particular, we focus on the highly relevant problem of cross-correlating the ultraviolet Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and optical Sloan Digital Sky…
We present a new catalogue of galaxy triplets derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. The identification of systems was performed considering galaxies brighter than M_r=-20.5 and imposing constraints over the projected distances, radial velocity differences of neighbouring galaxies and isolation. To improve the identification of triplets we employed a data pixelization scheme, which allows to handle large amounts of data as in the SDSS photometric survey. Using spectroscopic and photometric data in the redshift range 0.01<z<0.40 we obtain 5901 triplet candidates. We have used…
We present an X-ray spectroscopic study of optically selected (SDSS) Seyfert 2 (Sy2) galaxies. The goal is to study the obscuration of Sy2 galaxies beyond the local universe, using good quality X-ray spectra in combination with high S/N optical spectra for their robust classification. We analyzed all available XMM-Newton archival observations of narrow emission line galaxies that meet the above criteria in the redshift range 0.05<z<0.35. We initially selected narrow line AGN using the SDSS optical spectra and the BPT classification diagram. We further modeled and removed the stellar continuum,…
