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Research involving Lowell Observatory staff 2026
(All publications)

This is a work ever in progress.

(Pulled from ADS* by sel on 2026-01-05)

*We are grateful for all the effort that went into making The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) possible. The ADS is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC86A and can be found at: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/

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Years: 2026 Bottom

    2026

  1. Prat, J., Gatti, M., Doux, C., et al., (including Kuehn, K.), 2026, MNRAS, 545, staf2152, Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: wCDM cosmology from simulation-based inference with persistent homology on the sphere
    We present cosmological constraints from Dark Energy Survey Year 3 (DES Y3) weak lensing data using persistent homology, a topological data analysis technique that tracks how features like clusters and voids evolve across density thresholds. For the first time, we apply spherical persistent homology to galaxy survey data through the algorithm TOPOS2, which is optimized for curved-sky analyses and HEALPIX compatibility. Employing a simulation-based inference framework with the Gower Street simulation suite specifically designed to mimic DES Y3 data properties we extract topological summary statistics from convergence maps across multiple smoothing scales and redshift bins. After neural network compression of these statistics, we estimate the likelihood function and validate our analysis against baryonic feedback effects, finding minimal biases (under $0.3\sigma$) in the $\Omega _\mathrm{m}-S_8$ plane. Assuming the wCold Dark Matter model, our combined Betti numbers and second moments analysis yields $S_8 = 0.821 \pm 0.018$ and $\Omega _\mathrm{m} = 0.304\pm 0.037$ constraints 70 per cent tighter than those from cosmic shear two-point statistics in the same parameter plane. Our results demonstrate that topological methods provide a powerful and robust framework for extracting cosmological information, with our spherical methodology readily applicable to upcoming Stage IV wide-field galaxy surveys.
  2. 1 publications and 10 citations in 2026.

1 publications and 10 citations total.

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