The method of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) is among the best probes of the dark energy equation of state, and worldwide efforts are being invested in order to perform measurements that are accurate at the percent level. In current data analyses, however, estimates of the error about the BAO are based on the assumption that the density field can be treated as Gaussian, an assumption that becomes less accurate as smaller scales are included in the measurement. It was recently shown from large samples of N-body simulations that the error bars about the BAO obtained this way are in fact up to 15-20 per cent too small. This important bias has shaken the confidence in the way error bars are calculated, and is motivating developments of analyses pipelines that include non-Gaussian features in the matter density fields. In this thesis, we propose general strategies to incorporate non-Gaussian effects in the context of a survey. After describing the high performance N-body code that we used, we present novel properties of the non-Gaussian uncertainty about the matter power spectrum, and explain how these combine with a general survey selection function. Assuming that the non-Gaussian features that are observed in the simulations correspond to those of Nature, this approach is the first unbiased measurement of the error bar about the power spectrum, which simultaneously removes the undesired bias on the BAO error. We then relax this assumption about the similitude of the non-Gaussian natures in simulations and data, and develop tools that aim at measuring the non-Gaussian error bars exclusively from the data. It is possible to improve the constraining power of non-Gaussian analyses with `Gaussianizations' techniques, which map the observed fields into something more Gaussian. We show that two of such techniques maximally recover degrees of freedom that were lost in the gravitational collapse. Finally, from a large sample of high resolution N-body realizations, we construct a series of weak gravitational lensing distortion maps and provide high resolution halo catalogues that are used by the CFTHLenS community to calibrate their estimators and study many secondary effects with unprecedented accuracy.

The method of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) is among the best probes of the dark energy equation of state, and worldwide efforts are being invested in order to perform measurements that are accurate at the percent level. In current data analyses, however, estimates of the error about the BAO are based on the assumption that the density field can be treated as Gaussian, an assumption that becomes less accurate as smaller scales are included in the measurement. It was recently shown from large samples of N-body simulations that the error bars about the BAO obtained this way are in fact up to 15-20 per cent too small. This important bias has shaken the confidence in the way error bars are calculated, and is motivating developments of analyses pipelines that include non-Gaussian features in the matter density fields. In this thesis, we propose general strategies to incorporate non-Gaussian effects in the context of a survey. After describing the high performance N-body code that we used, we present novel properties of the non-Gaussian uncertainty about the matter power spectrum, and explain how these combine with a general survey selection function. Assuming that the non-Gaussian features that are observed in the simulations correspond to those of Nature, this approach is the first unbiased measurement of the error bar about the power spectrum, which simultaneously removes the undesired bias on the BAO error. We then relax this assumption about the similitude of the non-Gaussian natures in simulations and data, and develop tools that aim at measuring the non-Gaussian error bars exclusively from the data. It is possible to improve the constraining power of non-Gaussian analyses with `Gaussianizations' techniques, which map the observed fields into something more Gaussian. We show that two of such techniques maximally recover degrees of freedom that were lost in the gravitational collapse. Finally, from a large sample of high resolution N-body realizations, we construct a series of weak gravitational lensing distortion maps and provide high resolution halo catalogues that are used by the CFTHLenS community to calibrate their estimators and study many secondary effects with unprecedented accuracy.

Le chemin parcouru par la lumière, lors de sa propagation dans l’Univers, est altéré par la présence d’objets massifs. Cela entraine une déformation des images de galaxies lointaines. La mesure de cet effet, dit de lentille gravitationnelle faible, nous permet de sonder la structure, aux grandes échelles, de notre Univers. En particulier, nous pouvons ainsi étudier la distribution de la matière noire et les propriétés de l’Energie Sombre, proposée comme origine de l’accélération de l’expansion de l’Univers. L’étude de l'effet de lentille gravitationnelle faible constitue l’un des objectifs scientifiques principaux d'Euclid, un télescope spatial de l’Agence Spatiale Européenne en cours de construction.En pratique, ce signal est obtenu en mesurant la forme des galaxies. Toute image produite par un instrument optique est altérée par sa fonction d’étalement du point (PSF). Celle-ci a diverses origines : diffraction, imperfections dans les composantes optiques de l’instrument, effets atmosphériques (pour les télescopes au sol)… Puisque la PSF affecte aussi les formes des galaxies, il est crucial de la prendre en compte lorsque l’on étudie l’effet de lentille gravitationnelle faible, ce qui nécessite de très bien connaître la PSF elle-même.Celle-ci varie en fonction de la position dans le plan focal. Une mesure de la PSF, à certaines positions, est donnée par l’observation d’étoiles non-résolues dans le champ, à partir desquelles on peut construire un modèle de PSF. Dans le cas d’Euclid, ces images d’étoiles seront sous-échantillonnée ; aussi le modèle de PSF devra-t-il contenir une étape de super-résolution. En raison de la très large bande d’intégration de l’imageur visible d’Euclid, il sera également nécessaire de capturer les variations en longueur d’onde de la PSF.La contribution principale de cette thèse consiste en le développement de méthodes novatrices d’estimation de la PSF, reposant sur plusieurs outils : la notion de représentation parcimonieuse, et le transport optimal numérique. Ce dernier nous permet de proposer la première méthode capable de fournir un modèle polychromatique de la PSF, construit uniquement à partir d’images sous-échantillonnées d’étoiles et leur spectre. Une étude de la propagation des erreurs de PSF sur la mesure de forme de galaxies est également proposée. / As light propagates through the Universe, its path is altered by the presence of massive objects. This causes a distortion of the images of distant galaxies. Measuring this effect, called weak gravitational lensing, allows us to probe the large scale structure of the Universe. This makes it a powerful source of cosmological insight, and can in particular be used to study the distribution of dark matter and the nature of Dark Energy. The European Space Agency’s upcoming Euclid mission is a spaceborne telescope with weak lensing as one of its primary science objectives.In practice, the weak lensing signal is recovered from the measurement of the shapes of galaxies. The images obtained by any optical instrument are altered by its Point Spread Function (PSF), caused by various effects: diffraction, imperfect optics, atmospheric turbulence (for ground-based telescopes)… Since the PSF also alters galaxy shapes, it is crucial to correct for it when performing weak lensing measurements. This, in turn, requires precise knowledge of the PSF itself.The PSF varies depending on the position of objects within the instrument’s focal plane. Unresolved stars in the field provide a measurement of the PSF at given positions, from which a PSF model can be built. In the case of Euclid, star images will suffer from undersampling. The PSF model will thus need to perform a super-resolution step. In addition, because of the very wide band of its visible instrument, variations of the PSF with the wavelength of incoming light will also need to be accounted for.The main contribution of this thesis is the building of novel PSF modelling approaches. These rely on sparsity and numerical optimal transport. The latter enables us to propose the first method capable of building a polychromatic PSF model, using no information other than undersampled star images, their position and spectra. We also study the propagation of errors in the PSF to the measurement of galaxy shapes.

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<p dir="ltr">In this dissertation, we develop novel methods of performing shear measurements in individual exposures and apply them to images obtained from WIYN-ODI. We generalize forced photometry and call this new method forced measurement. This involves performing a single iteration of a traditional moment-matching algorithm with reasonable initial guess values and correcting for negative pixel values after background subtraction. We find that this allows us to make flux, shape, size, and ellipticity measurements at extremely low S/N < 1. We compare the performance of this method to existing approaches and find our method to be superior. A novel Monte Carlo PSF correction scheme is also introduced that allows us to dramatically increase the source density and hence perform more accurate weak lensing. These methods are then applied to measure shear across 411 ×30 individual exposures of the galaxy cluster Abell 2390. We find that we are successfully able to recover the main mass structures. We also find that we are able to recover the smaller galaxy groups over a very large field. Examining data from a variety of wavelengths and sources such as X-ray, Radio, and spectroscopic methods, we find Abell 2390 is likely to be a case of late-stage merger. The hot gas during the infall phase experienced friction causing loss of angular momentum and hence is almost merged with the main core. The Dark Matter (DM) cores, however, did not experience such friction and continue to be in the merger phase.In this dissertation, we develop novel methods of performing shear measurements in individual exposures and apply them to images obtained from WIYN-ODI. We generalize forced photometry and call this new method forced measurement. This involves performing a single iteration of a traditional moment-matching algorithm with reasonable initial guess values and correcting for negative pixel values after background subtraction. We find that this allows us to make flux, shape, size, and ellipticity measurements at extremely low S/N < 1. We compare the performance of this method to existing approaches and find our method to be superior. A novel Monte Carlo PSF correction scheme is also introduced that allows us to dramatically increase the source density and hence perform more accurate weak lensing. These methods are then applied to measure shear across 411 ×30 individual exposures of the galaxy cluster Abell 2390. We find that we are successfully able to recover the main mass structures. We also find that we are able to recover the smaller galaxy groups over a very large field. Examining data from a variety of wavelengths and sources such as X-ray, Radio, and spectroscopic methods, we find Abell 2390 is likely to be a case of late-stage merger. The hot gas during the infall phase experienced friction causing loss of angular momentum and hence is almost merged with the main core. The Dark Matter (DM) cores, however, did not experience such friction and continue to be in the merger phase.In this dissertation, we develop novel methods of performing shear measurements in individual exposures and apply them to images obtained from WIYN-ODI. We generalize forced photometry and call this new method forced measurement. This involves performing a single iteration of a traditional moment-matching algorithm with reasonable initial guess values and correcting for negative pixel values after background subtraction. We find that this allows us to make flux, shape, size, and ellipticity measurements at extremely low S/N < 1. We compare the performance of this method to existing approaches and find our method to be superior. A novel Monte Carlo PSF correction scheme is also introduced that allows us to dramatically increase the source density and hence perform more accurate weak lensing. These methods are then applied to measure shear across 411 ×30 individual exposures of the galaxy cluster Abell 2390. We find that we are successfully able to recover the main mass structures. We also find that we are able to recover the smaller galaxy groups over a very large field. Examining data from a variety of wavelengths and sources such as X-ray, Radio, and spectroscopic methods, we find Abell 2390 is likely to be a case of late-stage merger. The hot gas during the infall phase experienced friction causing loss of angular momentum and hence is almost merged with the main core. The Dark Matter (DM) cores, however, did not experience such friction and continue to be in the merger phase.</p>

L'effet de lentille gravitationnelle, qui se traduit par une deformation des images nous parvenant de galaxies lointaines, constitue l'une des techniques les plus prometteuse pour répondre aux nombreuses questions portant sur la nature de l'énergie sombre et de la matière noire. Cet effet de lentille étant sensible à la masse totale, il permet de sonder directement la distribution de matière noire, qui resterait autrement invisible. En mesurant la forme d'un grand nombre de galaxies lointaines, il est possible d'estimer statistiquement les déformations causées par l'effet de lentille gravitationnelles puis d'en inférer la distribution de masse à l'origine de ces deformations. La reconstruction de ces cartes de masses constitue un problème inverse qui se trouve être mal posé dans un certain nombre de situations d'interêt, en particulier lors de la reconstruction de la carte de masse aux petites échelles ou en trois dimensions. Dans ces situations, il devient impossible de reconstruire une carte sans l'ajout d'information a priori.Une classe particulière de méthodes, basées sur un a priori de parcimonie, s'est révélé remarquablement efficace pour résoudre des problèmes inverses similaires pour un large champ d'applications tels que la géophysique et l'imagerie médicale. Le but principal de cette these est donc d'adapter ces techniques de régularisation parcimonieuses au problème de la cartographie de la matière noire afin de developper une nouvelle generation de méthodes. Nous développons en particulier de nouveaux algorithmes permettant la reconstruction de carte masses bi-dimensionnelles de haute resolution ainsi que de cartes de masses tri-dimensionnelles. Nous appliquons de plus les mêmes méthodes de régularisation parcimonieuse au problème de la reconstruction du spectre de puissance des fluctuations primordiales de densités à partir de mesures du fond diffus cosmologique, ce qui constitue un problème inverse particulièrement difficile a résoudre. Nous développons un nouvel algorithme pour résoudre ce problème, que nous appliquons aux données du satellite Planck.Enfin, nous investiguons de nouvelles méthodes pour l'analyse de relevés cosmologiques exprimés en coordonnées sphériques. Nous développons une nouvelle transformée en ondelettes pour champs scalaires exprimés sur la boulle 3D et nous comparons différentes méthodes pour l'analyse cosmologique de relevés de galaxies spectroscopiques. / Gravitational lensing, that is the distortion of the images of distant galaxies by intervening massive objects, has been identified as one of the most promising probes to help answer questions relative to the nature of dark matter and dark energy. As the lensing effect is caused by the total matter content, it can directly probe the distribution of the otherwise invisible dark matter. By measuring the shapes of distant galaxies and statistically estimating the deformations caused by gravitational lensing, it is possible to reconstruct the distribution of the intervening mass. This mass-mapping process can be seen as an instance of a linear inverse problem, which can be ill-posed in many situations of interest, especially when mapping the dark matter on small angular scales or in three dimensions. As a result, recovering a meaningful mass-map in these situations is not possible without prior information. In recent years, a class of methods based on a so-called sparse prior has proven remarkably successful at solving similar linear inverse problems in a wide range of fields such as medical imaging or geophysics. The primary goal of this thesis is to apply these sparse regularisation techniques to the gravitational lensing problem in order to build next-generation dark matter mass-mapping tools. We propose in particular new algorithms for the reconstruction of high-resolution 2D mass-maps and 3D mass-maps and demonstrate in both cases the effectiveness of the sparse prior. We also apply the same sparse methodologies to the reconstruction the primordial density fluctuation power spectrum from measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background which constitutes another notoriously difficult inverse problem. We apply the resulting algorithm to reconstruct the primordial power spectrum using data from the Planck satellite. Finally, we investigate new methodologies for the analysis of cosmological surveys in spherical coordinates. We develop a new wavelet transform for the analysis of scalar fields on the 3D ball. We also conduct a comparison of methods for the 3D analysis of spectroscopic galaxy survey.

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