2,796 research outputs found
A Definitive Optical Detection of a Supercluster at z = 0.91
We present the results from a multi-band optical imaging program which has
definitively confirmed the existence of a supercluster at z = 0.91. Two massive
clusters of galaxies, CL1604+4304 at z = 0.897 and CL1604+4321 at z = 0.924,
were originally observed in the high-redshift cluster survey of Oke, Postman &
Lubin (1998). They are separated by 4300 km/s in radial velocity and 17
arcminutes on the plane of the sky. Their physical and redshift proximity
suggested a promising supercluster candidate. Deep BRi imaging of the region
between the two clusters indicates a large population of red galaxies. This
population forms a tight, red sequence in the color--magnitude diagram at (R-i)
= 1.4. The characteristic color is identical to that of the
spectroscopically-confirmed early-type galaxies in the two member clusters. The
red galaxies are spread throughout the 5 Mpc region between CL1604+4304 and
CL1604+4321. Their spatial distribution delineates the entire large scale
structure with high concentrations at the cluster centers. In addition, we
detect a significant overdensity of red galaxies directly between CL1604+4304
and CL1604+4321 which is the signature of a third, rich cluster associated with
this system. The strong sequence of red galaxies and their spatial distribution
clearly indicate that we have discovered a supercluster at z = 0.91.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. 13 pages,
including 5 figure
Testing Weak Lensing Maps With Redshift Surveys: A Subaru Field
We use a dense redshift survey in the foreground of the Subaru GTO2deg^2 weak
lensing field (centered at = 16;
=43^\circ11^{\prime}24^{\prime\prime}$) to assess the completeness and comment
on the purity of massive halo identification in the weak lensing map. The
redshift survey (published here) includes 4541 galaxies; 4405 are new redshifts
measured with the Hectospec on the MMT. Among the weak lensing peaks with a
signal-to-noise greater that 4.25, 2/3 correspond to individual massive
systems; this result is essentially identical to the Geller et al. (2010) test
of the Deep Lens Survey field F2. The Subaru map, based on images in
substantially better seeing than the DLS, enables detection of less massive
halos at fixed redshift as expected. We demonstrate that the procedure adopted
by Miyazaki et al. (2007) for removing some contaminated peaks from the weak
lensing map improves agreement between the lensing map and the redshift survey
in the identification of candidate massive systems.Comment: Astrophysical Journal accepted versio
The Dipole Observed in the COBE DMR Four-Year Data
The largest anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the
mK dipole assumed to be due to our velocity with respect to the
CMB. Using the four year data set from all six channels of the COBE
Differential Microwave Radiometers (DMR), we obtain a best-fit dipole amplitude
mK in the direction , where the first
uncertainties are statistical and the second include calibration and combined
systematic uncertainties. This measurement is consistent with previous DMR and
FIRAS resultsComment: New and improved version; to be published in ApJ next mont
Cosmic Mach Number as a Function of Overdensity and Galaxy Age
We carry out an extensive study of the cosmic Mach number (\mach) on scales
of R=5, 10 and 20h^-1Mpc using an LCDM hydrodynamical simulation. We
particularly put emphasis on the environmental dependence of \mach on
overdensity, galaxy mass, and galaxy age. We start by discussing the difference
in the resulting \mach according to different definitions of \mach and
different methods of calculation. The simulated Mach numbers are slightly lower
than the linear theory predictions even when a non-linear power spectrum was
used in the calculation, reflecting the non-linear evolution in the simulation.
We find that the observed \mach is higher than the simulated mean by more than
2-standard deviations, which suggests either that the Local Group is in a
relatively low-density region or that the true value of \Omega_m is ~ 0.2,
significantly lower than the simulated value of 0.37. We show from our
simulation that the Mach number is a weakly decreasing function of overdensity.
We also investigate the correlations between galaxy age, overdensity and \mach
for two different samples of galaxies --- DWARFs and GIANTs. Older systems
cluster in higher density regions with lower \mach, while younger ones tend to
reside in lower density regions with larger \mach, as expected from the
hierarchical structure formation scenario. However, for DWARFs, the correlation
is weakened by the fact that some of the oldest DWARFs are left over in
low-density regions during the structure formation history. For giant systems,
one expects blue-selected samples to have higher \mach than red-selected ones.
We briefly comment on the effect of the warm dark matter on the expected Mach
number.Comment: 43 pages, including 15 figures. Accepted version in ApJ. Included
correlation function of different samples of galaxies, and the cumulative
number fraction distribution as a fcn. of overdensity. Reorganized figures
and added some reference
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