Frontier Fields: High-Redshift Predictions and Early Results

The Frontier Fields program is obtaining deep Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope images of new "blank" fields and nearby fields gravitationally lensed by massive galaxy clusters. The Hubble images of the lensed fields are revealing nJy sources (AB mag > 31), the faintest galaxies yet observed. In this paper, we present high-redshift (z > 6) number count predictions for the full program and candidates in three of the first Hubble Frontier Fields images. The full program will transform our understanding of galaxy evolution in the first 600 million years (z > 9). Where previous programs yielded perhaps a dozen z > 9 candidates, the Frontier Fields may yield ~70 (~6 per field). We base this estimate on an extrapolation of luminosity functions observed between 4 < z < 8 and gravitational lensing models submitted by the community. However, in the first two deep infrared Hubble images obtained to date, we find z ~ 8 candidates but no strong candidates at z > 9. This might suggest a deficit of faint z > 9 galaxies as also reported in the Ultra Deep Field (even while excesses of brighter z > 9 galaxies were reported in shallower fields). At these redshifts, cosmic variance (field-to-field variation) is expected to be significant (greater than +/-50%) and include clustering of early galaxies formed in overdensities. The full Frontier Fields program will significantly mitigate this uncertainty by observing six independent sightlines each with a lensing cluster and nearby blank field.Comment: Submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 15 pages, 17 figure

A Redshift Survey of the Strong Lensing Cluster Abell 383

Abell 383 is a famous rich cluster (z = 0.1887) imaged extensively as a basis for intensive strong and weak lensing studies. Nonetheless there are few spectroscopic observations. We enable dynamical analyses by measuring 2360 new redshifts for galaxies with r$_{petro} \leq 20.5$ and within 50$^\prime$ of the BCG (Brightest Cluster Galaxy: R.A.$_{2000} = 42.014125^\circ$, Decl$_{2000} = -03.529228^\circ$). We apply the caustic technique to identify 275 cluster members within 7$h^{-1}$ Mpc of the hierarchical cluster center. The BCG lies within $-11 \pm 110$ km s$^{-1}$ and 21 $\pm 56 h^{-1}$ kpc of the hierarchical cluster center; the velocity dispersion profile of the BCG appears to be an extension of the velocity dispersion profile based on cluster members. The distribution of cluster members on the sky corresponds impressively with the weak lensing contours of Okabe et al. (2010) especially when the impact of foreground and background structure is included. The values of R$_{200}$ = $1.22\pm 0.01 h^{-1}$ Mpc and M$_{200}$ = $(5.07 \pm 0.09)\times 10^{14} h^{-1}$ M$_\odot$ obtained by application of the caustic technique agree well with recent completely independent lensing measures. The caustic estimate extends direct measurement of the cluster mass profile to a radius of $\sim 5 h^{-1}$ Mpc.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, ApJ accepte