Related papers: The confusion limit on astrometry with SIM
A sub-sampled deconvolution technique for crowded field photometry with the HST WFPC2 instrument was proposed by Butler (2000) and applied to search for optical counterparts to pulsars in globular clusters (Golden et al. 2001). Simulations…
Cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization observations will require superb control of systematic errors in order to achieve their full scientific potential, particularly in the case of attempts to detect the B modes that may provide a…
The Earth's atmospheric turbulence degrades the precision of ground-based astrometry. Here, we discuss these limitations and propose that, with proper treatment of systematics and by leveraging the many epochs available from the Korean…
We use Monte Carlo simulations to explore the statistical challenges of constraining the characteristic mass ($m_c$) and width ($\sigma$) of a lognormal sub-solar initial mass function (IMF) in Local Group dwarf galaxies using direct star…
Sky survey telescopes and powerful targeted telescopes play complementary roles in astronomy. In order to investigate the nature and characteristics of the motions of very faint objects, a flexibly-pointed instrument capable of high…
Precise photometric and astrometric measurements on astronomical images require an accurate knowledge of the Point Spread Function (PSF). When the PSF cannot be modelled directly from the image, PSF-reconstruction techniques become the only…
Models of the reionization and reheating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshifts $z \gtrsim 6$ continue to grow more sophisticated in anticipation of near-future 21-cm, cosmic microwave background, and galaxy survey measurements.…
A variety of beyond the standard model scenarios contain very light hidden sector U(1) gauge bosons undergoing kinetic mixing with the photon. The resulting oscillation between ordinary and hidden photons leads to spectral distortions of…
One of the most demanding tasks in astronomical image processing---in terms of precision---is the centroiding of stars. Upcoming large surveys are going to take images of billions of point sources, including many faint stars, with short…
The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) concept aims to perform mapping with spectral coverage and sensitivities inaccessible to previous FIR space telescopes. PRIMA's imaging instrument, PRIMAger, provides unique…
We investigate lens orbital motion in astrometric microlensing and its detectability. In microlensing events, the light centroid shift in the source trajectory (the astrometric trajectory) falls off much more slowly than the light…
We present deep imaging at 6.7 micron and 15 micron from the CAM instrument on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). These are the deepest integrations published to date at these wavelengths in any…
To perform precise and accurate photometric catalogue cross-matches -- assigning counterparts between two separate datasets -- we need to describe all possible sources of uncertainty in object position. With ever-increasing time baselines…
Studying galaxies at different cosmic epochs entails several observational effects that need to be taken into account to compare populations across a large time span in a consistent manner. We use a sample of 166 nearby galaxies that hosted…
During the last years, much attention has been paid to the astrometric implications of the galactic aberration in proper motions (GA). This effect causes systematic errors in astrometric measurements at a microarcsecond level. Some authors…
We analyze stellar proper motions in the COSMOS field to assess the presence of bulk motions. At bright magnitudes (G-band 18.5--20.76 AB), we use the proper motions of 1,010 stars in the Gaia DR2 catalog. At the faint end, we computed…
An undersampled point spread function may interact with the microstructure of a solid-state detector such that the total flux detected can depend sensitively on where the PSF center falls within a pixel. Such intra-pixel sensitivity…
Photometric calibration is currently the dominant source of systematic uncertainty in exploiting type Ia supernovae to determine the nature of the dark energy. We review our ongoing program to address this calibration challenge by…
Measurements of transverse profiles using Ionization Profile Monitors (IPMs) for high brightness beams are affected by the electromagnetic field of the beam. This interaction may cause a distortion of the measured profile shape despite…
Gravitational waves from binary mergers at cosmological distances will experience weak lensing by large scale structure. This causes a (de-)magnification, $\mu$, of the wave amplitude, and a degenerate modification to the inferred…