460 research outputs found
Time Delay Measurements for the Cluster-lensed Sextuple Quasar SDSS J2222+2745
We report first results from an ongoing monitoring campaign to measure time
delays between the six images of the quasar SDSS\,J22222745, gravitationally
lensed by a galaxy cluster. The time delay between A and B, the two most highly
magnified images, is measured to be days (95\%
confidence interval), consistent with previous model predictions for this lens
system. The strong intrinsic variability of the quasar also allows us to derive
a time delay value of days between image C and A,
in spite of modest overlap between their light curves in the current data set.
Image C, which is predicted to lead all the other lensed quasar images, has
undergone a sharp, monotonic flux increase of 60-75\% during 2014. A
corresponding brightening is firmly predicted to occur in images A and B during
2016. The amplitude of this rise indicates that time delays involving all six
known images in this system, including those of the demagnified central images
D-F, will be obtainable from further ground-based monitoring of this system
during the next few years.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Version accepted for publication in Ap
On the lack of correlation between Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom and Lyman alpha emission in lensed star-forming galaxies
We examine the Mg II 2796, 2803 Angstrom, Lyman alpha, and nebular line
emission in five bright star-forming galaxies at 1.66<z<1.91 that have been
gravitationally lensed by foreground galaxy clusters. All five galaxies show
prominent Mg II emission and absorption in a P Cygni profile. We find no
correlation between the equivalent widths of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission.
The Mg II emission has a broader range of velocities than do the nebular
emission line profiles; the Mg II emission is redshifted with respect to
systemic by 100 to 200 km/s. When present, Lyman alpha is even more redshifted.
The reddest components of Mg II and Lyman alpha emission have tails to 500-600
km/s, implying a strong outflow. The lack of correlation in the Mg II and Lyman
alpha equivalent widths, the differing velocity profiles, and the high ratios
of Mg II to nebular line fluxes together suggest that the bulk of Mg II
emission does not ultimately arise as nebular line emission, but may instead be
reprocessed stellar continuum emission.Comment: The Astrophysical Journal, in press. 6 pages, 2 figure
Dynamical Masses of RCS Galaxy Clusters
A multi-object spectroscopy follow-up survey of galaxy clusters selected from
the Red-sequence Cluster Survey (RCS) is being completed. About forty clusters
were chosen with redshifts from 0.15 to 0.6, and in a wide range of richnesses.
One of the main science drivers of this survey is a study of internal dynamics
of clusters. We present some preliminary results for a subset of the clusters,
including the correlation of optical richness with mass, and the mass-to-light
ratio as a function of cluster mass.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of IAU Colloquium
195: "Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters: intense life in the suburbs", Torino
Italy, March 200
Constraining the metallicities, ages, star formation histories, and ionizing continua of extragalactic massive star populations
We infer the properties of massive star populations using the far-ultraviolet
stellar continua of 61 star-forming galaxies: 42 at low-z observed with HST and
19 at z~2 from the Megasaura sample. We fit each stellar continuum with a
linear combination of up to 50 single age and single metallicity Starburst99
models. From these fits, we derive light-weighted ages and metallicities, which
agree with stellar wind and photospheric spectral features, and infer the
spectral shapes and strengths of the ionizing continua. Inferred light-weighted
stellar metallicities span 0.05-1.5 Z and are similar to the measured
nebular metallicities. We quantify the ionizing continua using the ratio of the
ionizing flux at 900\AA\ to the non-ionizing flux at 1500\AA\ and demonstrate
the evolution of this ratio with stellar age and metallicity using theoretical
single burst models. These single burst models only match the inferred ionizing
continua of half of the sample, while the other half are described by a mixture
of stellar ages. Mixed age populations produce stronger and harder ionizing
spectra than continuous star formation histories, but, contrary to previous
studies that assume constant star formation, have similar stellar and nebular
metallicities. Stellar population age and metallicity affect the far-UV
continua in different and distinguishable ways; assuming a constant star
formation history diminishes the diagnostic power. Finally, we provide simple
prescriptions to determine the ionizing photon production efficiency
() from the stellar population properties. has a range
of log( Hz erg that depends on stellar age,
metallicity, star formation history, and contributions from binary star
evolution. These stellar population properties must be observationally
determined to determine the number of ionizing photons generated by massive
stars.Comment: 31 pages, 23 figures, resubmitted to ApJ after incorporating the
referee's comments. Comments encourage
A z=0.9 supercluster of X-ray luminous, optically-selected, massive galaxy clusters
We report the discovery of a compact supercluster structure at z=0.9. The
structure comprises three optically-selected clusters, all of which are
detected in X-rays and spectroscopically confirmed to lie at the same redshift.
The Chandra X-ray temperatures imply individual masses of ~5x10^14 Msun. The
X-ray masses are consistent with those inferred from optical--X-ray scaling
relations established at lower redshift. A strongly-lensed z~4 Lyman break
galaxy behind one of the clusters allows a strong-lensing mass to be estimated
for this cluster, which is in good agreement with the X-ray measurement.
Optical spectroscopy of this cluster gives a dynamical mass in good agreement
with the other independent mass estimates. The three components of the
RCS2319+00 supercluster are separated from their nearest neighbor by a mere <3
Mpc in the plane of the sky and likely <10 Mpc along the line-of-sight, and we
interpret this structure as the high-redshift antecedent of massive (~10^15
Msun) z~0.5 clusters such as MS0451.5-0305.Comment: ApJ Letters accepted. 5 pages in emulateapj, 3 figure
Pair Analysis of Field Galaxies from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey
We study the evolution of the number of close companions of similar
luminosities per galaxy (Nc) by choosing a volume-limited subset of the
photometric redshift catalog from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-1). The
sample contains over 157,000 objects with a moderate redshift range of 0.25 < z
< 0.8 and absolute magnitude in Rc (M_Rc) < -20. This is the largest sample
used for pair evolution analysis, providing data over 9 redshift bins with
about 17,500 galaxies in each. After applying incompleteness and projection
corrections, Nc shows a clear evolution with redshift. The Nc value for the
whole sample grows with redshift as (1+z)^m, where m = 2.83 +/- 0.33 in good
agreement with N-body simulations in a LCDM cosmology. We also separate the
sample into two different absolute magnitude bins: -25 < M_Rc < -21 and -21 <
M_Rc < -20, and find that the brighter the absolute magnitude, the smaller the
m value. Furthermore, we study the evolution of the pair fraction for different
projected separation bins and different luminosities. We find that the m value
becomes smaller for larger separation, and the pair fraction for the fainter
luminosity bin has stronger evolution. We derive the major merger remnant
fraction f_rem = 0.06, which implies that about 6% of galaxies with -25 < M_Rc
< -20 have undergone major mergers since z = 0.8.Comment: ApJ, in pres
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