10,368 research outputs found
Multi-object spectroscopy of low redshift EIS clusters. I
We report the results of the first multi-object spectroscopic observations at
the Danish 1.54m telescope at La Silla, Chile. Observations of five cluster
candidates from the ESO Imaging Survey Cluster Candidate Catalog are described.
From these observations we confirm the reality of the five clusters with
measured redshifts of 0.11<=z<=0.35. We estimate velocity dispersions in the
range 294-621km/s indicating rather poor clusters. This, and the measured
cluster redshifts are consistent with the results of the matched filter
procedure applied to produce the Cluster Candidate Catalog.Comment: 7pages, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
Building a Sample of Distant Clusters of Galaxies
Candidate clusters of galaxies drawn from the sample identified from the
moderately deep I-band data of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS), have been used for
follow-up optical/infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations. The
observations were conducted to assess the nature of these candidates over a
large range of redshifts. Currently, 163 EIS candidates have (V-I) colors, 15
have (I-K) and 65 cluster fields have been observed spectroscopically. From a
preliminary analysis of these data, we find that > 65% of the candidates
studied show strong evidence of being real physical associations, over the
redshift range 0.2<z<1.1. The evidence in some cases comes directly from
spectroscopic measurements, in others indirectly from the detection of
overdensities of objects with either the same color or the same photometric
redshift, or from a combination of color and spectroscopic information.
Preliminary results also suggest that the redshift derived from the
matched-filter algorithm is a reasonable measure of the cluster's redshift,
possibly overestimating it by Delta z ~0.1, at least for systems at z<0.7.
Overdensities of red objects have been detected in over 100 candidates, 38 of
which with estimated redshifts >0.6, and six candidates in the interval
0.45<z<0.81 have either been identified directly from measured redshifts or
have been confirmed by the measurement of at least one redshift for galaxies
located along a red-sequence typical of cluster early-type galaxies. Lastly,
five candidates among those already observed in the infrared have (I-Ks) colors
consistent with them being in the redshift interval 0.8<z<1.1. The sample of
"confirmed" clusters, already the largest of its kind in the southern
hemisphere, will be further enlarged by ongoing observations.Comment: To appear in "Large Scale Structure in the X-ray Universe", ed. M.
Plionis and I. Georgantopoulos (Paris: Editions Frontieres), in pres
Multi-object spectroscopy of low-redshift EIS clusters IV. Reliability of matched-filter results at z~0.3-0.4
abridged) In this paper we present new redshifts for 747 galaxies in 23 ESO
Imaging Survey (EIS) cluster fields. We use the "gap"-technique to search for
significant overdensities in redshift space for identifying groups/clusters of
galaxies. In this way we spectroscopically confirm systems in 10 of the 23
cluster candidate fields with a matched-filter estimated redshift z_MF=0.3-0.4
and with spectroscopic redshifts in the range from z=0.158 to z=0.534. We find
that the systems identified in the present paper span a broad range of
one-dimensional velocity dispersion (175-497 km/s) and richness
(12L*<=L<=65L*). Both undersampling and contamination by substructures
contribute to the uncertainty of these measurements. From the analysis of the
colours of the galaxy populations we find that ~60% of the spectroscopically
confirmed systems have a "significant" red sequence with a colour matching
passive stellar evolution models. With this paper we complete our spectroscopic
survey of the fields of 58 EIS cluster candidates with estimated redshifts
z<=0.4. We have measured a total of 1954 galaxy redshifts in the range z=0.0065
to z=0.6706. Of the 58 systems we confirm 42 (~75%) with redshifts between
z=0.095 and z=0.534.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 19 pages, 11 figure
On the Nature of the EIS Candidate Clusters: Confirmation of z<0.6 candidates
We use public V-band imaging data from the wide-angle surveys conducted by
the ESO Imaging Survey project (EIS) to further investigate the nature of the
EIS galaxy cluster candidates. These were originally identified by applying a
matched-filter algorithm which used positional and photometric data of the
galaxy sample extracted from the I-band survey images. In this paper, we apply
the same technique to the galaxy sample extracted from V-band data and compare
the new cluster detections with the original ones. We find that ~75% of the
low-redshift cluster candidates (z<0.6) are detected in both passbands and
their estimated redshifts show good agreement with the scatter in the redshift
differences being consistent with the estimated errors of the method. For the
``robust'' I-band detections the matching frequency approaches ~85%. We also
use the available (V-I) color to search for the red sequence of early-type
galaxies observed in rich clusters over a broad range of redshifts. This is
done by searching for a simultaneous overdensity in the three-dimensional
color-projected distance space. We find significant overdensities for ~75% of
the ``robust'' candidates with z_I<0.6. We find good agreement between the
characteristic color associated to the detected "red sequence" and that
predicted by passive evolution galaxy models for ellipticals at the redshift
estimated by the matched-filter. The results presented in this paper show the
usefulness of color data, even of two-band data, to both tentatively confirm
cluster candidates and to select possible cluster members for spectroscopic
observations. Based on the present results, we estimate that ~150 EIS clusters
with z_I<0.6 are real, making it one of the largest samples of galaxy clusters
in this redshift range currently available in the southern hemisphere.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&
ESO Imaging Survey: Infrared Deep Public Survey
This paper presents new J and Ks data obtained from observations conducted at
the ESO 3.5m New Technology Telescope using the SOFI camera. These data were
taken as part of the ESO Imaging Survey Deep Public Survey (DPS) and
significantly extend the earlier optical/infrared EIS-DEEP survey presented in
a previous paper. The DPS-IR survey comprises two observing strategies: shallow
Ks observations providing nearly full coverage of pointings with complementary
multi-band optical data and deeper J and Ks observations of the central parts
of these fields. The DPS-IR survey provides a coverage of roughly 2.1 square
degrees in Ks with 0.63 square degrees to fainter magnitudes and also covered
in J, over three independent regions of the sky. The goal of the present paper
is to describe the observations, the data reduction procedures, and to present
the final survey products. The astrometric solution with an estimated accuracy
of <0.15" is based on the USNO catalog. The final stacked images presented here
number 89 and 272, in J and Ks, respectively, the latter reflecting the larger
surveyed area. The J and Ks images were taken with a median seeing of 0.77" and
0.8". The images reach a median 5sigma limiting magnitude of J_AB~23.06 in an
aperture of 2", while the corresponding limiting magnitude in Ks_AB is ~21.41
and ~22.16 mag for the shallow and deep strategies. Overall, the observed
limiting magnitudes are consistent with those originally proposed. The quality
of the data has been assessed by comparing the measured magnitude of sources at
the bright end directly with those reported by the 2MASS survey and at the
faint end by comparing the counts of galaxies and stars with those of other
surveys to comparable depth and to model predictions. The final science-grade
catalogs and images are available at CDS.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, 14 pages, 8 figures, a full
resolution version of the paper is available from
http://www.astro.ku.dk/~lisbeth/eisdata/papers/5019.pd
New approach to Dynamical Monte Carlo Methods: application to an Epidemic Model
A new approach to Dynamical Monte Carlo Methods is introduced to simulate
markovian processes. We apply this approach to formulate and study an epidemic
Generalized SIRS model. The results are in excellent agreement with the forth
order Runge-Kutta Method in a region of deterministic solution. We also
demonstrate that purely local interactions reproduce a poissonian-like process
at mesoscopic level. The simulations for this case are checked
self-consistently using a stochastic version of the Euler Method.Comment: Written with Scientific WorkPlace 3.51 in REVTex4 format, 11 pages
with 2 figures in postscript forma
Confirming EIS Clusters. Optical and Infrared Imaging
Clusters of galaxies are important targets in observationally cosmology, as
they can be used both to study the evolution of the galaxies themselves and to
constrain cosmological parameters. Here we report on the first results of a
major effort to build up a sample of distant galaxy clusters to form the basis
for further studies within those fields. We search for simultaneous
overdensities in color and space to obtain supporting evidence for the reality
of the clusters. We find a confirmation rate for EIS clusters of 66%,
suggesting that a total of about 80 clusters with z>=0.6 are within reach using
the EIS cluster candidates.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the IGRAP
International Conference 1999 on 'Clustering at high Redshift
VLT and NTT Observations of Two EIS Cluster Candidates. Detection of the Early-Type Galaxies Sequence at z~1
Optical data from the ESO VLT-UT1 Science Verification observations are
combined with near-infrared data from SOFI at the NTT to obtain
optical-infrared color-magnitude diagrams for the objects in the fields of two
EIS cluster candidates. In both cases, evidence is found for a well-defined
sequence of red galaxies that appear to be significantly more clustered than
the background population. These results suggest that the two systems are real
physical associations. The (R-Ks), (I-Ks) and (J-Ks) colors of the red
sequences are used, in conjunction with similar data for spectroscopically
confirmed clusters, to obtain redshift estimates of z ~ 0.9 and z ~ 1.0 for
these two systems. These results make these EIS cluster candidates prime
targets for follow-up spectroscopic observations to confirm their reality and
to measure more accurately their redshift.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics (Special
Letters Edition on "First Science with the VLT"
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