Related papers: Does the fine structure constant vary? A detailed …
We investigate the impact of statistical and systematic errors on measurements of linear redshift-space distortions (RSD) in future cosmological surveys, analyzing large catalogues of dark-matter halos from the BASICC simulation. These…
Laser Comb Wavelength calibration shows that the ThAr one is locally unreliable with possible deviations of up to 100 m/s within one order range, while delivering an overall 1 m/s accuracy (Wilken et al 2009). Such deviation corresponds to…
The tomographic AP method is so far the best method in separating the Alcock-Paczynski (AP) signal from the redshift space distortion (RSD) effects and deriving powerful constraints on cosmological parameters using the $\lesssim40h^{-1}\…
We study potential systematic effects of assembly bias on cosmological parameter constraints from redshift space distortion measurements. We use a semi-analytic galaxy formation model applied to the Millennium N-body WMAP-7 simulation to…
Development of fundamental physics relies on the constancy of various fundamental quantities such as the fine structure constant. Detecting or constraining the possible time variations of these fundamental physical quantities is an…
The main purpose of this work is to improve the existing knowledge about the most powerful engines in the Universe - quasars. Although a lot is already known, we still have only a vague idea how these engines work exactly, why they behave…
Quasar absorption spectra at 21-cm and UV rest-wavelengths are used to estimate the time variation of x=alpha^2 g_p mu, where alpha is the fine structure constant, g_p the proton g factor, and m_e/m_p=mu the electron/proton mass ratio. Over…
We have imaged 45 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with redshifts 1.85 < z < 4.26 in JHKs with the KPNO SQIID imager. By combining these data with optical magnitudes from the SDSS we have computed the restframe optical…
Future lensing surveys will be nearly full-sky and reach an unprecedented depth, probing scales closer and closer to the Hubble radius. This motivates the study of the cosmic shear beyond the small-angle approximation and including general…
We consider a long range scalar force that mainly couples to dark matter and unstable Standard Model states, like the muon, with tiny strength. Probing this type of force would present a challenge to observations. We point out that the…
This paper reports the X-ray spectral analysis of 5 high-redshift (z \ge 2) radio-quiet quasars observed by ASCA. A simple power law continuum plus cold Galactic absorption model well fits all the spectra (tipically between $\sim$ 2-30 keV…
We report the first measurement of the X-ray spectrum of the z = 5.99 quasar SDSSp J130608.26+035626.3 from a 120 ks observation by the Chandra ACIS-S instrument. Between 0.5 and 7 keV, corresponding to 3.5--49 keV in the quasar rest frame,…
Significant progress in the description of quasar variability has been recently made by employing SDSS and POSS data. Common to most studies is a fundamental assumption that photometric observations at two epochs for a large number of…
We present results from an efficient, non-traditional survey to discover damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorption-line systems with neutral hydrogen column densities N(HI)>2x10^{20} atoms cm^{-2} and redshifts z<1.65. Contrary to previous…
It was hypothesized in the literature that some physical parameters may be time-evolving and the astrophysical data can serve as a probe. Recently, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have released its early observations. In this work, we…
We explore potential strategies for testing General Relativity via the coherent motions of galaxies. Our position at z=0 provides the reference point for distance measures in cosmology. By contrast, the Cosmic Microwave Background at z ~…
The weak lensing shear signal has been measured numerically in $N$-body simulations at 14 different redshifts ($z_s = 0.1$ to 3.6) and on angular scales of $\theta = 2'$ to 32'. In addition, the data have been validated by analytical…
We introduce a model which allows the fine structure constant (alpha) to vary throughout space and time due to a coupling to a scalar field with a non-canonical kinetic structure. This provided a new extension of the…
Sun-like stars are a new probe of variations in the fine-structure constant, $\alpha$, via the solar twins approach: velocity separations of close pairs of absorption lines are compared between stars with very similar stellar parameters,…
We present a sample of 38 intervening Damped Lyman $\alpha$ (DLA) systems identified towards 100 $z>3.5$ quasars, observed during the XQ-100 survey. The XQ-100 DLA sample is combined with major DLA surveys in the literature. The final…