5,902 research outputs found
A spectroscopically confirmed z=1.327 galaxy-scale deflector magnifying a z~8 Lyman-Break galaxy in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies survey
We present a detailed analysis of an individual case of gravitational lensing
of a Lyman-Break galaxy (LBG) in a blank field, identified in Hubble
Space Telescope imaging obtained as part of the Brightest of Reionizing
Galaxies survey. To investigate the close proximity of the bright
() -dropout to a small group of foreground galaxies, we
obtained deep spectroscopy of the dropout and two foreground galaxies using
VLT/X-Shooter. We detect H-, H-, [OIII] and [OII] emission in
the brightest two foreground galaxies (unresolved at the natural seeing of
arcsec), placing the pair at . We can rule out emission lines
contributing all of the observed broadband flux in band at
, allowing us to exclude the candidate as a low redshift
interloper with broadband photometry dominated by strong emission lines. The
foreground galaxy pair lies at the peak of the luminosity, redshift and
separation distributions for deflectors of strongly lensed objects,
and we make a marginal detection of a demagnified secondary image in the
deepest () filter. We show that the configuration can be accurately
modelled by a singular isothermal ellipsoidal deflector and a S\'{e}rsic source
magnified by a factor of . The reconstructed source in the
best-fitting model is consistent with luminosities and morphologies of
LBGs in the literature. The lens model yields a group mass of
and a stellar mass-to-light ratio for the
brightest deflector galaxy of within its effective radius. The foreground galaxies'
redshifts would make this one of the few strong lensing deflectors discovered
at .Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16 pages, 11 figures, 3 table
Constraining the Progenitor Companion of the Nearby Type Ia SN 2011fe with a Nebular Spectrum at +981 Days
We present an optical nebular spectrum of the nearby Type Ia supernova
2011fe, obtained 981 days after explosion. SN 2011fe exhibits little evolution
since the +593 day optical spectrum, but there are several curious aspects in
this new extremely late-time regime. We suggest that the persistence of the
~\AA\ feature is due to Na I D, and that a new emission feature at
~\AA\ may be [Ca II]. Also, we discuss whether the new emission
feature at ~\AA\ might be [Fe I] or the high-velocity hydrogen
predicted by Mazzali et al. The nebular feature at 5200~\AA\ exhibits a linear
velocity evolution of per 100 days from at least
+220 to +980 days, but the line's shape also changes in this time, suggesting
that line blending contributes to the evolution. At days after
explosion, flux from the SN has declined to a point where contribution from a
luminous secondary could be detected. In this work we make the first
observational tests for a post-impact remnant star and constrain its
temperature and luminosity to and
. Additionally, we do not see any evidence for narrow H
emission in our spectrum. We conclude that observations continue to strongly
exclude many single-degenerate scenarios for SN 2011fe.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, published by MNRA
Development of a technology adoption and usage prediction tool for assistive technology for people with dementia
This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ The Authors 2013.In the current work, data gleaned from an assistive technology (reminding technology), which has been evaluated with people with Dementia over a period of several years was retrospectively studied to extract the factors that contributed to successful adoption. The aim was to develop a prediction model with the capability of prospectively assessing whether the assistive technology would be suitable for persons with Dementia (and their carer), based on user characteristics, needs and perceptions. Such a prediction tool has the ability to empower a formal carer to assess, through a very limited amount of questions, whether the technology will be adopted and used.EPSR
Lower bounds on photometric redshift errors from Type Ia supernovae templates
Cosmology with Type Ia supernovae heretofore has required extensive
spectroscopic follow-up to establish a redshift. Though tolerable at the
present discovery rate, the next generation of ground-based all-sky survey
instruments will render this approach unsustainable. Photometry-based redshift
determination is a viable alternative, but introduces non-negligible errors
that ultimately degrade the ability to discriminate between competing
cosmologies. We present a strictly template-based photometric redshift
estimator and compute redshift reconstruction errors in the presence of
photometry and statistical errors. With reasonable assumptions for a cadence
and supernovae distribution, these redshift errors are combined with systematic
errors and propagated using the Fisher matrix formalism to derive lower bounds
on the joint errors in and relevant to the next
generation of ground-based all-sky survey.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure
The Impact of Strong Gravitational Lensing on Observed Lyman-Break Galaxy Numbers at 4<z<8 in the GOODS and the XDF Blank Fields
Detection of Lyman-Break Galaxies (LBGs) at high-redshift can be affected by
gravitational lensing induced by foreground deflectors not only in galaxy
clusters, but also in blank fields. We quantify the impact of strong
magnification in the samples of , , , LBGs () observed in the XDF and GOODS/CANDELS fields, by investigating the
proximity of dropouts to foreground objects. We find that of bright
LBGs () by
foreground objects. This fraction decreases from at to
at . Since the observed fraction of strongly lensed
galaxies is a function of the shape of the luminosity function (LF), it can be
used to derive Schechter parameters, and , independently
from galaxy number counts. Our magnification bias analysis yields
Schechter-function parameters in close agreement with those determined from
galaxy counts albeit with larger uncertainties. Extrapolation of our analysis
to suggests that future surveys with JSWT, WFIRST and EUCLID
should find excess LBGs at the bright-end, even if there is an intrinsic
exponential cutoff of number counts. Finally, we highlight how the
magnification bias measurement near the detection limit can be used as probe of
the population of galaxies too faint to be detected. Preliminary results using
this novel idea suggest that the magnification bias at is not
as strong as expected if extends well below the current
detection limits in the XDF. At face value this implies a flattening of the LF
at . However, selection effects and completeness estimates
are difficult to quantify precisely. Thus, we do not rule out a steep LF
extending to .Comment: Submitted to ApJ on 18/12/201
NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year One: Preliminary Asteroid Diameters and Albedos
We present preliminary diameters and albedos for 7,959 asteroids detected in
the first year of the NEOWISE Reactivation mission. 201 are near-Earth
asteroids (NEAs). 7,758 are Main Belt or Mars-crossing asteroids. 17% of these
objects have not been previously characterized using WISE or NEOWISE thermal
measurements. Diameters are determined to an accuracy of ~20% or better. If
good-quality H magnitudes are available, albedos can be determined to within
~40% or better.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figure
High Redshift Supernovae in the Hubble Deep Field
Two supernovae detected in the Hubble Deep Field using the original December
1995 epoch and data from a shorter (63000 s in F814W) December 1997 visit with
HST are discussed. The supernovae (SNe) are both associated with distinct
galaxies at redshifts of 0.95 (spectroscopic) from Cohen etal. (1996) and 1.32
(photometric) from the work of Fernandez-Soto, Lanzetta, and Yahil (1998).
These redshifts are near, in the case of 0.95, and well beyond for 1.32 the
greatest distance reported previously for SNe. We show that our observations
are sensitive to SNe to z < 1.8 in either epoch for an event near peak
brightness. Detailed simulations are discussed that quantify the level at which
false events from our search phase would start to to arise, and the
completeness of our search as a function of both SN brightness and host galaxy
redshift. The number of Type Ia and Type II SNe expected as a function of
redshift in the two HDF epochs are discussed in relation to several published
predictions and our own detailed calculations. A mean detection frequency of
one SN per epoch for the small HDF area is consistent with expectations from
current theory.Comment: 62 pages, 17 figures, ApJ 1999 in pres
NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year Three: Asteroid Diameters and Albedos
The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE)
reactivation mission has completed its third year of surveying the sky in the
thermal infrared for near-Earth asteroids and comets. NEOWISE collects
simultaneous observations at 3.4 um and 4.6 um of solar system objects passing
through its field of regard. These data allow for the determination of total
thermal emission from bodies in the inner solar system, and thus the sizes of
these objects. In this paper we present thermal model fits of asteroid
diameters for 170 NEOs and 6110 MBAs detected during the third year of the
survey, as well as the associated optical geometric albedos. We compare our
results with previous thermal model results from NEOWISE for overlapping sample
sets, as well as diameters determined through other independent methods, and
find that our diameter measurements for NEOs agree to within 26% (1-sigma) of
previously measured values. Diameters for the MBAs are within 17% (1-sigma).
This brings the total number of unique near-Earth objects characterized by the
NEOWISE survey to 541, surpassing the number observed during the fully
cryogenic mission in 2010.Comment: Accepted for publication in A
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