University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The millimeter-wavelength source catalog from the third-generation South Pole Telescope survey

Archipley, Melanie Ann

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125711

Description

Title
The millimeter-wavelength source catalog from the third-generation South Pole Telescope survey
Author(s)
Archipley, Melanie Ann
Issue Date
2024-07-10
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
  • Vieira, Joaquin
  • Crawford, Thomas
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Vieira, Joaquin
Committee Member(s)
  • Holder, Gil
  • Menanteau, Felipe
  • Fields, Brian
Department of Study
Astronomy
Discipline
Astronomy
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • astronomy
  • catalogs
  • surveys
  • observations
  • galaxies
  • cosmic microwave background (CMB)
  • millimeter wave astronomy
  • high redshift galaxies
  • submillimeter galaxies
  • active galactic nuclei (AGN)
  • cosmology
  • synchrotron radiation
  • dust
Abstract
The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is at the frontier of measuring the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and surveying the millimeter sky. The third generation SPT camera (SPT-3G) observed a 1,696 square degree patch of sky during the austral winters of 2019-2023, resulting in high-resolution CMB maps with a factor of six improved noise levels over the first generation SPT survey. The SPT-3G camera’s observing frequencies are centered roughly at 90, 150, and 220 GHz (3.3, 2, and 1.4 mm), which results in data suitable for large-angular-scale science including CMB studies as well as comparatively small-scale discoveries of individual galaxies, galaxy clusters, and transient objects including flaring stars and active galactic nuclei (AGN). In this thesis, I present the point-source-finding pipeline for the SPT-3G survey; the static, emissive point source catalog; and differential source counts from five years of data. This work is the first point source catalog data release for the aforementioned survey. I detected 28,736 objects with signal-to-noise of at least five in one or more bands, corresponding to 1.24, 1.44, and 4.57 mJy at 90, 150, and 220 GHz, respectively, with approximately arcminute resolution. Comparisons to external catalogs in radio, infrared, and millimeter frequencies leave 14,565 SPT-3G sources (51% of the whole catalog) without counterparts at other wavelengths or already cataloged in a previous millimeter survey. The spectral indices of these sources reveal two distinct populations: flat- and falling-spectrum sources indicating synchrotron radiation and rising-spectrum sources corresponding to thermal emission. The synchrotron sources are AGN while the thermal sources are dust- enshrouded galaxies, which are bright at millimeter wavelengths due to the reprocessing of starlight by dust. Many of the dusty galaxies are expected to be at high redshift (z>1) in a subpopulation of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), which may also be strongly gravitationally lensed. The catalog comprises 12,464 synchrotron sources and 16,272 dusty sources (4,303 of which are strong SMG candidates). The SPT-3G point source catalog in the millimeter sky probes a high mean redshift of objects, enabling the future study of the early universe’s galaxies and structure formation.
Graduation Semester
2024-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125711
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2024 Melanie Ann Archipley

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