41 research outputs found
UV-luminous, star-forming hosts of z similar to 2 reddened quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
We present the first rest-frame UV population study of 17 heavily reddened, high-luminosity [E(B − V)QSO ≳ 0.5; Lbol > 1046 erg s−1] broad-line quasars at 1.5 < z < 2.7. We combine the first year of deep, optical, ground-based observations from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with the near-infrared VISTA Hemisphere Survey and UKIDSS Large Area Survey data, from which the reddened quasars were initially identified. We demonstrate that the significant dust reddening towards the quasar in our sample allows host galaxy emission to be detected at the rest-frame UV wavelengths probed by the DES photometry. By exploiting this reddening effect, we disentangle the quasar emission from that of the host galaxy via spectral energy distribution fitting. We find evidence for a relatively unobscured, star-forming host galaxy in at least 10 quasars, with a further three quasars exhibiting emission consistent with either star formation or scattered light. From the rest-frame UV emission, we derive instantaneous, dust-corrected star formation rates (SFRs) in the range 25 < SFRUV < 365 M⊙ yr−1, with an average SFRUV = 130 ± 95 M⊙ yr−1. We find a broad correlation between SFRUV and the bolometric quasar luminosity. Overall, our results show evidence for coeval star formation and black hole accretion occurring in luminous, reddened quasars at the peak epoch of galaxy formation
VDES J2325-5229 a z=2.7 gravitationally lensed quasar discovered using morphology independent supervised machine learning
We present the discovery and preliminary characterization of a gravitationally lensed quasar with a source redshift = 2.74 and image separation of 2.9 arcsec lensed by a foreground = 0.40 elliptical galaxy. Since optical observations of gravitationally lensed quasars show the lens system as a superposition of multiple point sources and a foreground lensing galaxy, we have developed a morphology-independent multi-wavelength approach to the photometric selection of lensed quasar candidates based on Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) supervised machine learning. Using this technique and multicolour photometric observations from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), near-IR photometry from the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and WISE mid-IR photometry, we have identified a candidate system with two catalogue components with = 18.61 and = 20.44 comprising an elliptical galaxy and two blue point sources. Spectroscopic follow-up with NTT and the use of an archival AAT spectrum show that the point sources can be identified as a lensed quasar with an emission line redshift of = 2.739 ± 0.003 and a foreground early-type galaxy with = 0.400 ± 0.002. We model the system as a single isothermal ellipsoid and find the Einstein radius θE ∼ 1.47 arcsec, enclosed mass enc ∼ 4 × 10⊙ and a time delay of ∼52 d. The relatively wide separation, month scale time delay duration and high redshift make this an ideal system for constraining the expansion rate beyond a redshift of 1.FO is supported jointly by CAPES (the Science without Borders programme) and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. RGM, CAL, MWA, MB, SLR acknowledge the support of UK Science and Technology Research Council (STFC). AJC acknowledges the support of a Raymond and Beverly Sackler visiting fellowship at the Institute of Astronomy.
For further information regarding funding please visit the publisher's website
UV-luminous, star-forming hosts of z ~ 2 reddened quasars in the Dark Energy Survey
We present the first rest-frame UV population study of 17 heavily reddened,
high-luminosity (E(B-V) 0.5; L
10ergs) broad-line quasars at . We combine the
first year of deep, optical, ground-based observations from the Dark Energy
Survey (DES) with the near infrared VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and UKIDSS
Large Area Survey (ULAS) data, from which the reddened quasars were initially
identified. We demonstrate that the significant dust reddening towards the
quasar in our sample allows host galaxy emission to be detected at the
rest-frame UV wavelengths probed by the DES photometry. By exploiting this
reddening effect, we disentangle the quasar emission from that of the host
galaxy via spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We find evidence for a
relatively unobscured, star-forming host galaxy in at least ten quasars, with a
further three quasars exhibiting emission consistent with either star formation
or scattered light. From the rest-frame UV emission, we derive instantaneous,
dust-corrected star formation rates (SFRs) in the range 25 < SFR <
365 Myr, with an average SFR = 130 95
Myr. We find a broad correlation between SFR and
the bolometric quasar luminosity. Overall, our results show evidence for coeval
star formation and black hole accretion occurring in luminous, reddened quasars
at the peak epoch of galaxy formation
Combining dark energy survey science verification data with near-infrared data from the ESO VISTA hemisphere survey
We present the combination of optical data from the Science Verification
phase of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with near infrared data from the ESO
VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS). The deep optical detections from DES are used to
extract fluxes and associated errors from the shallower VHS data. Joint 7-band
() photometric catalogues are produced in a single 3 sq-deg DECam
field centred at 02h26m04d36m where the availability of ancillary
multi-wavelength photometry and spectroscopy allows us to test the data
quality. Dual photometry increases the number of DES galaxies with measured VHS
fluxes by a factor of 4.5 relative to a simple catalogue level matching
and results in a 1.5 mag increase in the 80\% completeness limit of the
NIR data. Almost 70\% of DES sources have useful NIR flux measurements in this
initial catalogue. Photometric redshifts are estimated for a subset of galaxies
with spectroscopic redshifts and initial results, although currently limited by
small number statistics, indicate that the VHS data can help reduce the
photometric redshift scatter at both . We present example
DES+VHS colour selection criteria for high redshift Luminous Red Galaxies
(LRGs) at as well as luminous quasars. Using spectroscopic
observations in this field we show that the additional VHS fluxes enable a
cleaner selection of both populations with 10\% contamination from galactic
stars in the case of spectroscopically confirmed quasars and
contamination from galactic stars in the case of spectroscopically confirmed
LRGs. The combined DES+VHS dataset, which will eventually cover almost 5000
sq-deg, will therefore enable a range of new science and be ideally suited for
target selection for future wide-field spectroscopic surveys.We thank the referee, Nicholas Cross, for a very useful report on
this manuscript. MB acknowledges a postdoctoral fellowship via
OL’s Advanced European Research Council Grant (TESTDE).
Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the U.S.
Department of Energy, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the
Ministry of Science and Education of Spain, the Science and Technology
Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Higher Education
Funding Council for England, the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, the Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Fundac¸ ˜ao
Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo `a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de
Janeiro, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient´ıfico e Tecnol
´ogico and the Minist´erio da Ciˆencia e Tecnologia, the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Collaborating Institutions in the
Dark Energy Survey.
The Collaborating Institutions are Argonne National Laboratories,
the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of
Cambridge, Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales
y Tecnologicas-Madrid, the University of Chicago, University
College London, the DES-Brazil Consortium, the Eidgen¨ossische
Technische Hochschule (ETH) Z¨urich, Fermi National Accelerator
Laboratory, the University of Edinburgh, the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Institut de Ciencies de l’Espai
(IEEC/CSIC), the Institut de Fisica d’Altes Energies, the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, the Ludwig-Maximilians Universit
¨at and the associated Excellence Cluster Universe, the University
of Michigan, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory,
the University of Nottingham, The Ohio State University, the University
of Pennsylvania, the University of Portsmouth, SLAC National
Laboratory, Stanford University, the University of Sussex,
and Texas A&M University.
The DES participants from Spanish institutions are partially
supported by MINECO under grants AYA2009-13936, AYA2012-
39559, AYA2012-39620, and FPA2012-39684, which include
FEDER funds from the European Union.
We are grateful for the extraordinary contributions of our
CTIO colleagues and the DES Camera, Commissioning and Science
Verification teams in achieving the excellent instrument and
telescope conditions that have made this work possible. The success
of this project also relies critically on the expertise and dedication
of the DES Data Management organisation.
The analysis presented here is based on observations obtained
as part of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey, ESO Progam, 179.A-
2010 (PI: McMahon) and data products from observations made
with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under
programme ID 179.A-2006 (PI: Jarvis).
Data for the OzDES spectroscopic survey were obtained with
the Anglo-Australian Telescope (program numbers 12B/11 and
13B/12). Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian
Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics
(CAASTRO), through project number CE110001020. TMD acknowledges
the support of the Australian Research Council through
Future Fellowship, FT100100595.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/446/3/2523.abstract
Discovery of the lensed quasar system DES J0408-5354
We report the discovery and spectroscopic confirmation of the quad-like lensed quasar system DES J0408-5354 found in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 (Y1) data. This system was discovered during a search for DES Y1 strong lensing systems using a method that identified candidates as red galaxies with multiple blue neighbors. DES J0408-5354 consists of a central red galaxy surrounded by three bright (i<20) blue objects and a fourth red object. Subsequent spectroscopic observations using the Gemini South telescope confirmed that the three blue objects are indeed the lensed images of a quasar with redshift z = 2.375, and that the central red object is an early-type lensing galaxy with redshift z = 0.597. DES J0408-5354 is the first quad lensed quasar system to be found in DES and begins to demonstrate the potential of DES to discover and dramatically increase the sample size of these very rare objects
Dark Energy Surveyed Year 1 results: calibration of cluster mis-centring in the redMaPPer catalogues
The centre determination of a galaxy cluster from an optical cluster finding algorithm can be offset from theoretical prescriptions or N-body definitions of its host halo centre. These offsets impact the recovered cluster statistics, affecting both richness measurements and the weak lensing shear profile around the clusters. This paper models the centring performance of the redMaPPer cluster finding algorithm using archival X-ray observations of redMaPPer selected clusters. Assuming the X-ray emission peaks as the fiducial halo centres, and through analysing their offsets to the redMaPPer centres, we find that ∼75 ± 8 per cent of the redMaPPer clusters are well centred and the mis-centred offset follows a Gamma distribution in normalized, projected distance. These mis-centring offsets cause a systematic underestimation of cluster richness relative to the well-centred clusters, for which we propose a descriptive model. Our results enable the DES Y1 cluster cosmology analysis by characterizing the necessary corrections to both the weak lensing and richness abundance functions of the DES Y1 redMaPPer cluster catalogue
Mass variance from archival X-ray properties of dark energy survey year-1 galaxy clusters
For abstract see published article
The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign - I. Overview and classification of candidates selected by two techniques
The primary goals of the STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey
(STRIDES) collaboration are to measure the dark energy equation of state
parameter and the free streaming length of dark matter. To this aim, STRIDES is
discovering strongly lensed quasars in the imaging data of the Dark Energy
Survey and following them up to measure time delays, high resolution imaging,
and spectroscopy sufficient to construct accurate lens models. In this paper,
we first present forecasts for STRIDES. Then, we describe the STRIDES
classification scheme, and give an overview of the Fall 2016 follow-up
campaign. We continue by detailing the results of two selection methods, the
Outlier Selection Technique and a morphological algorithm, and presenting lens
models of a system, which could possibly be a lensed quasar in an unusual
configuration. We conclude with the summary statistics of the Fall 2016
campaign. Including searches presented in companion papers (Anguita et al.;
Ostrovski et al.), STRIDES followed up 117 targets identifying 7 new strongly
lensed systems, and 7 nearly identical quasars (NIQs), which could be confirmed
as lenses by the detection of the lens galaxy. 76 candidates were rejected and
27 remain otherwise inconclusive, for a success rate in the range 6-35\%. This
rate is comparable to that of previous searches like SQLS even though the
parent dataset of STRIDES is purely photometric and our selection of candidates
cannot rely on spectroscopic information
Stellar mass as a galaxy cluster mass proxy: application to the Dark Energy Survey redMaPPer clusters
We introduce a galaxy cluster mass observable, μ⋆, based on the stellar masses of cluster members, and we present results for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Year 1 (Y1) observations. Stellar masses are computed using a Bayesian model averaging method, and are validated for DES data using simulations and COSMOS data. We show that μ⋆ works as a promising mass proxy by comparing our predictions to X-ray measurements. We measure the X-ray temperature–μ_{⋆} relation for a total of 129 clusters matched between the wide-field DES Y1 redMaPPer catalogue and Chandra and XMM archival observations, spanning the redshift range 0.1 < z < 0.7. For a scaling relation that is linear in logarithmic space, we find a slope of α = 0.488 ± 0.043 and a scatter in the X-ray temperature at fixed μ_{*} of σ1nT_{x}|μ_{*} = 0.266_{-0.020}^{+0.019} for the joint sample. By using the halo mass scaling relations of the X-ray temperature from the Weighing the Giants program, we further derive the μ⋆-conditioned scatter in mass, finding σ1nM|μ_{*} = 0.26_{-0.10}^{+0.15}. These results are competitive with well-established cluster mass proxies used for cosmological analyses, showing that μ_{⋆} can be used as a reliable and physically motivated mass proxy to derive cosmological constraints
Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger
On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta