Day 1472

Monday.

1809.10744
Studying the solar system with the international pulsar timing array
Cabllero, et al

Pulsar-timing analyses are sensitive to errors in the solar-system ephemerides (SSEs) that timing models utilize to estimate the location of the solar-system barycentre, the quasi-inertial reference frame to which all recorded pulse times-of-arrival are referred.  Any error in the SSE will affect all pulsars, therefore pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) are a suitable tool to search for such errors and impose independent constraints on relevant physical parameters.  Employ the first data release of the international pulsar timing array to constrain the masses of the planet-moon systems and to search for possible unmodelled objects (UMOs) in the solar system.  Employ ten SSEs from 2 independent research groups, derive and compare mass constrains of planetary systems, and derive the first PTA mass constraints on asteroid-belt objects.  Constrains on planetary-system masses have been improved by factors of up to 20 from the previous relevant study using the same assumptions, with the mass of the Jovian system measured at 9.5479179(3)e-4 Msun.  The mass of the dwarf planet Ceres is measured at 4.7(4)e-10 Msun.  Also present the first sensitivity curves using real data that place generic limits on the masses of UMOs, which can also be used as upper limits on the mass of putative exotic objects.  For example, upper limits on dark-matter clumps are comparable to published limits using independent methods.  While the constraints on planetary masses derived with all employed SSEs are consistent, note and discuss differences in the associated timing residuals and UMO sensitivity curves.


1809.10747
Constraining neutrinos mass with tomographic weak lensing one-point probability distribution function and power spectrum
Liu, Madhavacheril

Study the constraints on neutrino mass sum (M_nu) from the 1pt probability distribution function (PDF) and power spectrum of weak lensing measurements for an LSST-like survey, using the MassiveNuS simulations.  The PDF provides access to non-Gaussian information beyond the power spectrum.  It is particularly sensitive to nonlinear growth on small scales, where massive neutrinos also have the largest effect.  Find that tomography helps improve the constraint on M_nu by 14% and 32% for the power spectrum and the PDF, respectively, compared to a single redshift bin.  The PDF alone outperformed the power spectrum in constraining M_nu.  When the two statistics are combined, the constraint is further tightened by 35%.  Conclude that WL PDF is complementary to the PS and has the potential to become a powerful tool for constraining neutrino mass.