177 research outputs found
Obscuration by Gas and Dust in Luminous Quasars
We explore the connection between absorption by neutral gas and extinction by
dust in mid-infrared (IR) selected luminous quasars. We use a sample of 33
quasars at redshifts 0.7 < z < 3 in the 9 deg^2 Bo\"otes multiwavelength survey
field that are selected using Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera
colors and are well-detected as luminous X-ray sources (with >150 counts) in
Chandra observations. We divide the quasars into dust-obscured and unobscured
samples based on their optical to mid-IR color, and measure the neutral
hydrogen column density N_H through fitting of the X-ray spectra. We find that
all subsets of quasars have consistent power law photon indices equal to 1.9
that are uncorrelated with N_H. We classify the quasars as gas-absorbed or
gas-unabsorbed if N_H > 10^22 cm^-2 or N_H < 10^22 cm^-2, respectively. Of 24
dust-unobscured quasars in the sample, only one shows clear evidence for
significant intrinsic N_H, while 22 have column densities consistent with N_H <
10^22 cm^-2. In contrast, of the nine dust-obscured quasars, six show evidence
for intrinsic gas absorption, and three are consistent with N_H < 10^22 cm^-2.
We conclude that dust extinction in IR-selected quasars is strongly correlated
with significant gas absorption as determined through X-ray spectral fitting.
These results suggest that obscuring gas and dust in quasars are generally
co-spatial, and confirm the reliability of simple mid-IR and optical
photometric techniques for separating quasars based on obscuration.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
A VLT/FORS2 Multi-Slit Search for Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxies at z~6.5
We present results from a deep spectroscopic search in the 9150A atmospheric
window for z~6.5 Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies using the VLT/FORS2. Our
multi-slit+narrow-band filter survey covers a total spatial area of 17.6 sq.
arcmin in four different fields and reaches fluxes down to 5x10^(-18)
erg/s/cm^2 (7 sigma detection). Our detection limit is significantly fainter
than narrow-band searches at this redshift and fainter also than the unlensed
brightness of Hu et al.'s HCM6A at z=6.56, and thus provides better overlap
with surveys at much lower redshifts. Eighty secure emission line galaxies are
detected. However, based on their clear continuum emission shortward of the
line or the presence of multiple lines, none of these can be Ly-alpha emission
at z~6.5. Our null result of finding no z~6.5 Ly-alpha emitters suggests that
the number density of Ly-alpha emitters with L>2x10^(42) erg/s declines by ~2
between z~3 and z~6.5.Comment: accepted by ApJ Letters (originally submitted June 11, 2004
First Weak-lensing Results from "See Change": Quantifying Dark Matter in the Two Z>1.5 High-redshift Galaxy Clusters SPT-CL J2040-4451 and IDCS J1426+3508
We present a weak-lensing study of SPT-CLJ2040-4451 and IDCSJ1426+3508 at
z=1.48 and 1.75, respectively. The two clusters were observed in our "See
Change" program, a HST survey of 12 massive high-redshift clusters aimed at
high-z supernova measurements and weak-lensing estimation of accurate cluster
masses. We detect weak but significant galaxy shape distortions using IR images
from the WFC3, which has not yet been used for weak-lensing studies. Both
clusters appear to possess relaxed morphology in projected mass distribution,
and their mass centroids agree nicely with those defined by both the galaxy
luminosity and X-ray emission. Using an NFW profile, for which we assume that
the mass is tightly correlated with the concentration parameter, we determine
the masses of SPT-CL J2040-4451 and IDCS J1426+3508 to be
M_{200}=8.6_{-1.4}^{+1.7}x10^14 M_sun and 2.2_{-0.7}^{+1.1}x10^14 M_sun,
respectively. The weak-lensing mass of SPT-CLJ2040-4451 shows that the cluster
is clearly a rare object. Adopting the central value, the expected abundance of
such a massive cluster at z>1.48 is only ~0.07 in the parent 2500 sq. deg.
survey. However, it is yet premature to claim that the presence of this cluster
creates a serious tension with the current LCDM paradigm unless that tension
will remain in future studies after marginalizing over many sources of
uncertainties such as the accuracy of the mass function and the
mass-concentration relation at the high mass end. The mass of IDCSJ1426+3508 is
in excellent agreement with our previous ACS-based weak-lensing result while
the much higher source density from our WFC3 imaging data makes the current
statistical uncertainty ~40% smaller.Comment: Accepted to Ap
IDCS J1426.5+3508: The Most Massive Galaxy Cluster at
We present a deep (100 ks) Chandra observation of IDCS J1426.5+3508, a
spectroscopically confirmed, infrared-selected galaxy cluster at .
This cluster is the most massive galaxy cluster currently known at ,
based on existing Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) and gravitational lensing detections.
We confirm this high mass via a variety of X-ray scaling relations, including
-M, -M, -M and -M, finding a tight distribution of masses
from these different methods, spanning M = 2.3-3.3
M, with the low-scatter -based mass M. IDCS J1426.5+3508 is currently the
only cluster at for which X-ray, SZ and gravitational lensing mass
estimates exist, and these are in remarkably good agreement. We find a
relatively tight distribution of the gas-to-total mass ratio, employing total
masses from all of the aforementioned indicators, with values ranging from
= 0.087-0.12. We do not detect metals in the intracluster medium
(ICM) of this system, placing a 2 upper limit of . This upper limit on the metallicity suggests that this system may
still be in the process of enriching its ICM. The cluster has a dense,
low-entropy core, offset by 30 kpc from the X-ray centroid, which makes
it one of the few "cool core" clusters discovered at , and the first
known cool core cluster at . The offset of this core from the
large-scale centroid suggests that this cluster has had a relatively recent
(500 Myr) merger/interaction with another massive system.Comment: Minor changes to match accepted version, results unchanged; ApJ in
pres
The Spitzer South Pole Telescope Deep Field Survey: Linking galaxies and halos at z=1.5
We present an analysis of the clustering of high-redshift galaxies in the
recently completed 94 deg Spitzer-SPT Deep Field survey. Applying flux and
color cuts to the mid-infrared photometry efficiently selects galaxies at
in the stellar mass range , making this
sample the largest used so far to study such a distant population. We measure
the angular correlation function in different flux-limited samples at scales
(corresponding to physical distances Mpc) and
thereby map the one- and two-halo contributions to the clustering. We fit halo
occupation distributions and determine how the central galaxy's stellar mass
and satellite occupation depend on the halo mass. We measure a prominent peak
in the stellar-to-halo mass ratio at a halo mass of , 4.5 times higher than the value. This supports
the idea of an evolving mass threshold above which star formation is quenched.
We estimate the large-scale bias in the range and the satellite
fraction to be , showing a clear evolution compared to
. We also find that, above a given stellar mass limit, the fraction of
galaxies that are in similar mass pairs is higher at than at . In
addition, we measure that this fraction mildly increases with the stellar mass
limit at , which is the opposite of the behavior seen at low-redshift.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures. Published in MNRA
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