Statistics for New Datasets in Cosmology

Details Statistics for New Datasets in Cosmology Statistics for New Datasets in Cosmology

May 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998phdt........21c&link_type=abstract

Thesis (PHD). PRINCETON UNIVERSITY , Source DAI-B 58/11, p. 6012, May 1998, 194 pages.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Gravitational Lensing, Galaxy Formation, Topology, Hubble Deep Field

Scientific paper

This thesis focuses on three topics related to cosmology: gravitational lensing, early galaxy formation, and topology of large scale structure. We have used high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of Cluster C10024+16 to reconstruct the image of a background galaxy lensed by the cluster. The observations, perhaps for the first time, reveal obvious similarities in separate images of the same multiple lensed source, and put tight constraints on the mass of the cluster. We have also used gravitational lensing to constrain the Hubble constant (H0). We have observed the two images of doubly imaged quasar 0957+516. Since the lengths of the image paths are different, we see an observable time delay between flickering in images A and B. Measuring this delay very accurately for the first time, we find H0 = 64 ± 13(2/sigma) km/s/Mpc. The Hubble Deep Field is the deepest astronomical image ever taken. Many of the objects in it reside at redshifts of 2 or greater. We have shown that many of the faintest objects are physically associated, and have considered three scenarios for such associations, merging of the objects into large galaxies, accretion of satellites by large galaxies, and placement of the objects in pre-existing galaxies as giant star-forming regions. After dynamical analysis, we favor the third and simplest scenario. Genus topology is a test for Gaussian random-phase fluctuations in large-scale structure, as predicted by inflation. We have used this test on the COBE-DMR survey of the microwave background and the Las Campanas Redshift Survey of galaxies. In both cases, we found the structures to be consistent with a Gaussian random-phase field, confirming the inflationary prediction. We have also prepared simulations of two upcoming observational projects which will provide a tremendous amount of data well-suited for the genus topology test, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP). We have found that MAP will allow the genus test to constrain very tightly any non-Gaussian random-phase fluctuations in the early Universe. We find that the SDSS will characterize, early in its mission, how gravitational structure growth causes the genus to evolve.

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