63 research outputs found
RELICS: Strong Lens Models for Five Galaxy Clusters From the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey
Strong gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters magnifies background
galaxies, enhancing our ability to discover statistically significant samples
of galaxies at z>6, in order to constrain the high-redshift galaxy luminosity
functions. Here, we present the first five lens models out of the Reionization
Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS) Hubble Treasury Program, based on new HST
WFC3/IR and ACS imaging of the clusters RXC J0142.9+4438, Abell 2537, Abell
2163, RXC J2211.7-0349, and ACT-CLJ0102-49151. The derived lensing
magnification is essential for estimating the intrinsic properties of
high-redshift galaxy candidates, and properly accounting for the survey volume.
We report on new spectroscopic redshifts of multiply imaged lensed galaxies
behind these clusters, which are used as constraints, and detail our strategy
to reduce systematic uncertainties due to lack of spectroscopic information. In
addition, we quantify the uncertainty on the lensing magnification due to
statistical and systematic errors related to the lens modeling process, and
find that in all but one cluster, the magnification is constrained to better
than 20% in at least 80% of the field of view, including statistical and
systematic uncertainties. The five clusters presented in this paper span the
range of masses and redshifts of the clusters in the RELICS program. We find
that they exhibit similar strong lensing efficiencies to the clusters targeted
by the Hubble Frontier Fields within the WFC3/IR field of view. Outputs of the
lens models are made available to the community through the Mikulski Archive
for Space TelescopesComment: Accepted to Ap
RELICS: High-Resolution Constraints on the Inner Mass Distribution of the z=0.83 Merging Cluster RXJ0152.7-1357 from strong lensing
Strong gravitational lensing (SL) is a powerful means to map the distribution
of dark matter. In this work, we perform a SL analysis of the prominent X-ray
cluster RXJ0152.7-1357 (z=0.83, also known as CL 0152.7-1357) in \textit{Hubble
Space Telescope} images, taken in the framework of the Reionization Lensing
Cluster Survey (RELICS). On top of a previously known galaxy multiply
imaged by RXJ0152.7-1357, for which we identify an additional multiple image,
guided by a light-traces-mass approach we identify seven new sets of multiply
imaged background sources lensed by this cluster, spanning the redshift range
[1.79-3.93]. A total of 25 multiple images are seen over a small area of ~0.4
, allowing us to put relatively high-resolution constraints on the
inner matter distribution. Although modestly massive, the high degree of
substructure together with its very elongated shape make RXJ0152.7-1357 a very
efficient lens for its size. This cluster also comprises the third-largest
sample of z~6-7 candidates in the RELICS survey. Finally, we present a
comparison of our resulting mass distribution and magnification estimates with
those from a Lenstool model. These models are made publicly available through
the MAST archive.Comment: 15 Pages, 7 Figures, 4 Tables Accepted for publication in Ap
Galactic pane infrared polarization survey (GPIPS): Data Release 4
The Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS) seeks to characterize the magnetic field in the dusty Galactic disk using near-infrared stellar polarimetry. All GPIPS observations were completed using the 1.83 m Perkins telescope and Mimir instrument. GPIPS observations surveyed 76 deg2 of the northern Galactic plane, from Galactic longitudes 18°–56° and latitudes −1° to +1°, in the H band (1.6 μm). Surveyed stars span 7th–16th mag, resulting in nearly 10 million stars with measured linear polarizations. Of these stars, ones with m_H < 12.5 mag and polarization percentage uncertainties under 2% were judged to be high quality and number over one million. GPIPS data reveal plane-of-sky magnetic field orientations for numerous interstellar clouds for AV values to ∼30 mag. The average sky separation of stars with m_H < 12.5 mag is about 30″, or about 60 per Planck polarization resolution element. Matching to Gaia DR2 showed the brightest GPIPS stars are red giants with distances in the 0.6–7.5 kpc range. Polarization orientations are mostly parallel to the Galactic disk, with some zones showing significant orientation departures. Changes in orientations are stronger as a function of Galactic longitude than of latitude. Considered at 10′ angular scales, directions that show the greatest polarization fractions and narrowest polarization position angle distributions are confined to about 10 large, coherent structures that are not correlated with star-forming clouds. The GPIPS polarimetric and photometric data products (Data Release 4 catalogs and images) are publicly available for over 13 million stars.Accepted manuscrip
A Candidate Galaxy Strongly Lensed into a Spatially Resolved Arc
The most distant galaxies known are at z~10-11, observed 400-500 Myr after
the Big Bang. The few z~10-11 candidates discovered to date have been
exceptionally small- barely resolved, if at all, by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Here we present the discovery of SPT0615-JD, a fortuitous z~10
(z_phot=9.9+/-0.6) galaxy candidate stretched into an arc over ~2.5" by the
effects of strong gravitational lensing. Discovered in the Reionization Lensing
Cluster Survey (RELICS) Hubble Treasury program and companion S-RELICS Spitzer
program, this candidate has a lensed H-band magnitude of 25.7+/-0.1 AB mag.
With a magnification of \mu~4-7 estimated from our lens models, the de-lensed
intrinsic magnitude is 27.6+/-0.3 AB mag, and the half-light radius is r_e<0.8
kpc, both consistent with other z>9 candidates. The inferred stellar mass (log
[M* /M_Sun]=9.7^{+0.7}_{-0.5}) and star formation rate (\log [SFR/M_Sun
yr^{-1}]=1.3^{+0.2}_{-0.3}) indicate that this candidate is a typical
star-forming galaxy on the z>6 SFR-M* relation. We note that three independent
lens models predict two counterimages, at least one of which should be of a
similar magnitude to the arc, but these counterimages are not yet detected.
Counterimages would not be expected if the arc were at lower redshift. However,
the only spectral energy distributions capable of fitting the Hubble and
Spitzer photometry well at lower redshifts require unphysical combinations of
z~2 galaxy properties. The unprecedented lensed size of this z~10 candidate
offers the potential for the James Webb Space Telescope to study the geometric
and kinematic properties of a galaxy observed 500 Myr after the Big Bang.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to ApJ Letter
RELICS: A Strong Lens Model for SPT-CLJ0615-5746, a z=0.972 Cluster
We present a lens model for the cluster SPT-CLJ06155746, which is the
highest redshift () system in the Reionization of Lensing Clusters
Survey (RELICS), making it the highest redshift cluster for which a full strong
lens model is published. We identify three systems of multiply-imaged lensed
galaxies, two of which we spectroscopically confirm at and ,
which we use as constraints for the model. We find a foreground structure at
, which we include as a second cluster-sized halo in one of our
models; however two different statistical tests find the best-fit model
consists of one cluster-sized halo combined with three individually optimized
galaxy-sized halos, as well as contributions from the cluster galaxies
themselves. We find the total projected mass density within (the
region where the strong lensing constraints exist) to be
~M. If we extrapolate out to
, our projected mass density is consistent with the mass inferred from
weak lensing and from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect
(~M). This cluster is lensing a previously reported
galaxy, which, if spectroscopically confirmed, will be the
highest-redshift strongly lensed galaxy known.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures 4 tables. ApJ Accepte
RELICS: The Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey and the Brightest High-z Galaxies
Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations. We present here the z ~ 6-8 candidate high-redshift galaxies from the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS), a Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 41 massive galaxy clusters spanning an area of ≈200 arcmin². These clusters were selected to be excellent lenses, and we find similar high-redshift sample sizes and magnitude distributions as the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). We discover 257, 57, and eight candidate galaxies at z ~ 6, 7, and 8 respectively, (322 in total). The observed (lensed) magnitudes of the z ~ 6 candidates are as bright as AB mag ~23, making them among the brightest known at these redshifts, comparable with discoveries from much wider, blank-field surveys. RELICS demonstrates the efficiency of using strong gravitational lenses to produce high-redshift samples in the epoch of reionization. These brightly observed galaxies are excellent targets for follow-up study with current and future observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope
RELICS: A Very Large () Cluster Lens -- RXC J0032.1+1808
Extensive surveys with the \textit{Hubble Space Telescope} (HST) over the
past decade, targeting some of the most massive clusters in the sky, have
uncovered dozens of galaxy-cluster strong lenses. The massive cluster
strong-lens scale is typically \theta_{E}\sim10\arcsec to \sim30-35\arcsec,
with only a handful of clusters known with Einstein radii
\theta_{E}\sim40\arcsec or above (for , nominally). Here we
report another very large cluster lens, RXC J0032.1+1808 (), the
second richest cluster in the redMapper cluster catalog and the 85th most
massive cluster in the Planck Sunyaev-Zel'dovich catalog. With our
Light-Traces-Mass and fully parametric (dPIEeNFW) approaches, we construct
strong lensing models based on 18 multiple images of 5 background galaxies
newly identified in the \textit{Hubble} data mainly from the
\textit{Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey} (RELICS), in addition to a known
sextuply imaged system in this cluster. Furthermore, we compare these models to
Lenstool and GLAFIC models that were produced independently as part of the
RELICS program. All models reveal a large effective Einstein radius of
\theta_{E}\simeq40\arcsec (), owing to the obvious
concentration of substructures near the cluster center. Although RXC
J0032.1+1808 has a very large critical area and high lensing strength, only
three magnified high-redshift candidates are found within the field targeted by
RELICS. Nevertheless, we expect many more high-redshift candidates will be seen
in wider and deeper observations with \textit{Hubble} or \emph{JWST}. Finally,
the comparison between several algorithms demonstrates that the total error
budget is largely dominated by systematic uncertainties.Comment: 23 pages, accepted for publication in Ap
RELICS: Strong Lensing analysis of the galaxy clusters Abell S295, Abell 697, MACS J0025.4-1222, and MACS J0159.8-0849
We present a strong-lensing analysis of four massive galaxy clusters imaged
with the Hubble Space Telescope in the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey. We
use a Light-Traces-Mass technique to uncover sets of multiply images and
constrain the mass distribution of the clusters. These mass models are the
first published for Abell S295 and MACS J0159.8-0849, and are improvements over
previous models for Abell 697 and MACS J0025.4-1222. Our analysis for MACS
J0025.4-1222 and Abell S295 shows a bimodal mass distribution supporting the
merger scenarios proposed for these clusters. The updated model for MACS
J0025.4-1222 suggests a substantially smaller critical area than previously
estimated. For MACS J0159.8-0849 and Abell 697 we find a single peak and
relatively regular morphology, revealing fairly relaxed clusters. Despite being
less prominent lenses, three of these clusters seem to have lensing strengths,
i.e. cumulative area above certain magnification, similar to the Hubble
Frontier Fields clusters (e.g., A() arcmin, A()
arcmin), which in part can be attributed to their merging
configurations. We make our lens models publicly available through the Mikulski
Archive for Space Telescopes. Finally, using Gemini-N/GMOS spectroscopic
observations we detect a single emission line from a high-redshift
galaxy candidate lensed by Abell 697. While we cannot rule
out a lower-redshift solution, we interpret the line as Ly at
, in agreement with its photometric redshift and dropout
nature. Within this scenario we measure a Ly rest-frame equivalent
width of \AA, and an observed Gaussian width of km/s.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures; V2, accepted for publication in Ap
Calcium Influx Rescues Adenylate Cyclase-Hemolysin from Rapid Cell Membrane Removal and Enables Phagocyte Permeabilization by Toxin Pores
Bordetella adenylate cyclase toxin-hemolysin (CyaA) penetrates the cytoplasmic membrane of phagocytes and employs two distinct conformers to exert its multiple activities. One conformer forms cation-selective pores that permeabilize phagocyte membrane for efflux of cytosolic potassium. The other conformer conducts extracellular calcium ions across cytoplasmic membrane of cells, relocates into lipid rafts, translocates the adenylate cyclase enzyme (AC) domain into cells and converts cytosolic ATP to cAMP. We show that the calcium-conducting activity of CyaA controls the path and kinetics of endocytic removal of toxin pores from phagocyte membrane. The enzymatically inactive but calcium-conducting CyaA-AC− toxoid was endocytosed via a clathrin-dependent pathway. In contrast, a doubly mutated (E570K+E581P) toxoid, unable to conduct Ca2+ into cells, was rapidly internalized by membrane macropinocytosis, unless rescued by Ca2+ influx promoted in trans by ionomycin or intact toxoid. Moreover, a fully pore-forming CyaA-ΔAC hemolysin failed to permeabilize phagocytes, unless endocytic removal of its pores from cell membrane was decelerated through Ca2+ influx promoted by molecules locked in a Ca2+-conducting conformation by the 3D1 antibody. Inhibition of endocytosis also enabled the native B. pertussis-produced CyaA to induce lysis of J774A.1 macrophages at concentrations starting from 100 ng/ml. Hence, by mediating calcium influx into cells, the translocating conformer of CyaA controls the removal of bystander toxin pores from phagocyte membrane. This triggers a positive feedback loop of exacerbated cell permeabilization, where the efflux of cellular potassium yields further decreased toxin pore removal from cell membrane and this further enhances cell permeabilization and potassium efflux
- …