48 research outputs found
Thirty-fold: Extreme gravitational lensing of a quiescent galaxy at
We report the discovery of eMACSJ1341-QG-1, a quiescent galaxy at
located behind the massive galaxy cluster eMACSJ1341.92442 (). The
system was identified as a gravitationally lensed triple image in Hubble Space
Telescope images obtained as part of a snapshot survey of the most X-ray
luminous galaxy clusters at and spectroscopically confirmed in
ground-based follow-up observations with the ESO/X-Shooter spectrograph. From
the constraints provided by the triple image, we derive a first, crude model of
the mass distribution of the cluster lens, which predicts a gravitational
amplification of a factor of 30 for the primary image and a factor of
6 for the remaining two images of the source, making eMACSJ1341-QG-1 by
far the most strongly amplified quiescent galaxy discovered to date. Our
discovery underlines the power of SNAPshot observations of massive, X-ray
selected galaxy clusters for lensing-assisted studies of faint background
populations
Deep rest-frame far-UV spectroscopy of the giant Lyman-alpha emitter 'Himiko'
We present deep 10h VLT/XSHOOTER spectroscopy for an extraordinarily luminous
and extended Lya emitter at z=6.595 referred to as Himiko and first discussed
by Ouchi et al. (2009), with the purpose of constraining the mechanisms
powering its strong emission. Complementary to the spectrum, we discuss NIR
imaging data from the CANDELS survey. We find neither for HeII nor any metal
line a significant excess, with 3 sigma upper limits of 6.8, 3.1, and
5.8x10^{-18} erg/s/cm^2 for CIV 1549, HeII 1640, CIII]
1909, respectively, assuming apertures with 200 km/s widths and offset
by -250 km/s w.r.t to the peak Lya redshift. These limits provide strong
evidence that an AGN is not a major contribution to Himiko's Lya flux. Strong
conclusions about the presence of PopIII star-formation or gravitational
cooling radiation are not possible based on the obtained HeII upper limit. Our
Lya spectrum confirms both spatial extent and flux (8.8+/-0.5x10^{-17}
erg/s/cm^2) of previous measurements. In addition, we can unambiguously exclude
any remaining chance of it being a lower redshift interloper by significantly
detecting a continuum redwards of Lya, while being undetected bluewards
Determining the fraction of reddened quasars in COSMOS with multiple selection techniques from X-ray to radio wavelengths
The sub-population of quasars reddened by intrinsic or intervening clouds of
dust are known to be underrepresented in optical quasar surveys. By defining a
complete parent sample of the brightest and spatially unresolved quasars in the
COSMOS field, we quantify to which extent this sub-population is fundamental to
our understanding of the true population of quasars. By using the available
multiwavelength data of various surveys in the COSMOS field, we built a parent
sample of 33 quasars brighter than mag, identified by reliable X-ray to
radio wavelength selection techniques. Spectroscopic follow-up with the
NOT/ALFOSC was carried out for four candidate quasars that had not been
targeted previously to obtain a 100\% redshift completeness of the sample. The
population of high quasars (HAQs), a specific sub-population of quasars
selected from optical/near-infrared photometry, is found to contribute
of the parent sample. The full population of bright spatially
unresolved quasars represented by our parent sample consists of
reddened quasars defined by having , and
of the sample having assuming the extinction
curve of the Small Magellanic Cloud. We show that the HAQ selection works well
for selecting reddened quasars, but some are missed because their optical
spectra are too blue to pass the color cut in the HAQ selection. This is
either due to a low degree of dust reddening or anomalous spectra. We find that
the fraction of quasars with contributing light from the host galaxy is most
dominant at . At higher redshifts the population of spatially
unresolved quasars selected by our parent sample is found to be representative
of the full population at mag. This work quantifies the bias against
reddened quasars in studies that are based solely on optical surveys.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. The ArXiv
abstract has been shortened for it to be printabl
A hyper luminous starburst at z=4.72 magnified by a lensing galaxy pair at z=1.48
International audienceWe serendipitously discovered in the Herschel Reference Survey an extremely bright infrared source with S500 ∼ 120 mJy in the line of sight of the Virgo cluster which we name Red Virgo 4 (RV4). Based on IRAM/EMIR and IRAM/NOEMA detections of the CO(5−4), CO(4−3), and [CI] lines, RV4 is located at a redshift of 4.724, yielding a total observed infrared luminosity of 1.1 ± 0.6 × 1014 L⊙. At the position of the Herschel emission, three blobs are detected with the VLA at 10 cm. The CO(5−4) line detection of each blob confirms that they are at the same redshift with the same line width, indicating that they are multiple images of the same source. In Spitzer and deep optical observations, two sources, High-z Lens 1 (HL1) West and HL1 East, are detected at the center of the three VLA/NOEMA blobs. These two sources are placed at z = 1.48 with X-shooter spectra, suggesting that they could be merging and gravitationally lensing the emission of RV4. HL1 is the second most distant lens known to date in strong lensing systems. Constrained by the position of the three VLA/NOEMA blobs, the Einstein radius of the lensing system is 2.2″ ± 0.2 (20 kpc). The high redshift of HL1 and the large Einstein radius are highly unusual for a strong lensing system. In this paper, we present the insterstellar medium properties of the background source RV4. Different estimates of the gas depletion time yield low values suggesting that RV4 is a starburst galaxy. Among all high-z submillimeter galaxies, this source exhibits one of the lowest L[CI] to LIR ratios, 3.2 ± 0.9 × 10−6, suggesting an extremely short gas depletion time of only 14 ± 5 Myr. It also shows a relatively high L[CI] to LCO(4−3) ratio (0.7 ± 0.2) and low LCO(5−4) to LIR ratio (only ∼50% of the value expected for normal galaxies) hinting at low density of gas. Finally, we discuss the short depletion time of RV4. It can be explained by either a very high star formation efficiency, which is difficult to reconcile with major mergers simulations of high-z galaxies, or a rapid decrease of star formation, which would bias the estimate of the depletion time toward an artificially low value
MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) IX. The impact of gas flows on the relations between the mass, star formation rate and metallicity of galaxies
We study the link between gas flow events and key galaxy scaling relations:
the relations between star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass (the main
sequence, MS), gas metallicity and stellar mass (the mass-metallicity relation,
MZR) and gas metallicity, stellar mass and SFR (the fundamental metallicity
relation, FMR). Using all star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in the 22 MUSE fields of
the MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) survey, we derive the MS, MZR and FMR
scaling relations for 385 SFGs with at
redshifts 0.35 < z < 0.85. Using the MUSE data and complementary X-Shooter
spectra at 0.85 < z < 1.4, we determine the locations of 21 SFGs associated
with inflowing or outflowing circumgalactic gas (i.e. with strong MgII
absorption in background quasar spectra) relative to these scaling relations.
Compared to a control sample of galaxies without gas flows (i.e., without MgII
absorption within 70 kpc of the quasar), SFGs with inflow events (i.e., MgII
absorption along the major axis) are preferentially located above the MS, while
SFGs with ouflow events (i.e., MgII absorption along the minor axis) are
preferentially more metal rich. Our observations support the scenario in which
gas accretion increases the SFR while diluting the metal content and where
circumgalactic outflows are found in more metal-rich galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
Onset of Cosmic Reionization: Evidence of An Ionized Bubble Merely 680 Myrs after the Big Bang
While most of the inter-galactic medium (IGM) today is permeated by ionized
hydrogen, it was largely filled with neutral hydrogen for the first 700 million
years after the Big Bang. The process that ionized the IGM (cosmic
reionization) is expected to be spatially inhomogeneous, with fainter galaxies
playing a significant role. However, we still have only a few direct
constraints on the reionization process. Here we report the first spectroscopic
confirmation of two galaxies and very likely a third galaxy in a group
(hereafter EGS77) at redshift z = 7.7, merely 680 Myrs after the Big Bang. The
physical separation among the three members is < 0.7 Mpc. We estimate the
radius of ionized bubble of the brightest galaxy to be about 1.02 Mpc, and show
that the individual ionized bubbles formed by all three galaxies likely overlap
significantly, forming a large yet localized ionized region, which leads to the
spatial inhomogeneity in the reionization process. It is striking that two of
three galaxies in EGS77 are quite faint in the continuum, thanks to our
selection of reionizing sources using their Lyman-alpha line emission. Indeed,
one is the faintest spectroscopically confirmed galaxy yet discovered at such
high redshifts. Our observations provide direct constraints in the process of
cosmic reionization, and allow us to investigate the properties of sources
responsible for reionizing the universe.Comment: Submitted after addressing referee's comment
Faint end of the <i>z</i> ∼ 3–7 luminosity function of Lyman-alpha emitters behind lensing clusters observed with MUSE
Contact. This paper presents the results obtained with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the ESO Very Large Telescope on the faint end of the Lyman-alpha luminosity function (LF) based on deep observations of four lensing clusters. The goal of our project is to set strong constraints on the relative contribution of the Lyman-alpha emitter (LAE) population to cosmic reionization.
Aims. The precise aim of the present study is to further constrain the abundance of LAEs by taking advantage of the magnification provided by lensing clusters to build a blindly selected sample of galaxies which is less biased than current blank field samples in redshift and luminosity. By construction, this sample of LAEs is complementary to those built from deep blank fields, whether observed by MUSE or by other facilities, and makes it possible to determine the shape of the LF at fainter levels, as well as its evolution with redshift.
Methods. We selected a sample of 156 LAEs with redshifts between 2.9 ≤ z ≤ 6.7 and magnification-corrected luminosities in the range 39 ≲ log LLyα [erg s−1] ≲43. To properly take into account the individual differences in detection conditions between the LAEs when computing the LF, including lensing configurations, and spatial and spectral morphologies, the non-parametric 1/Vmax method was adopted. The price to pay to benefit from magnification is a reduction of the effective volume of the survey, together with a more complex analysis procedure to properly determine the effective volume Vmax for each galaxy. In this paper we present a complete procedure for the determination of the LF based on IFU detections in lensing clusters. This procedure, including some new methods for masking, effective volume integration and (individual) completeness determinations, has been fully automated when possible, and it can be easily generalized to the analysis of IFU observations in blank fields.
Results. As a result of this analysis, the Lyman-alpha LF has been obtained in four different redshift bins: 2.9 <  z <  6, 7, 2.9 <  z <  4.0, 4.0 <  z <  5.0, and 5.0 <  z <  6.7 with constraints down to log LLyα = 40.5. From our data only, no significant evolution of LF mean slope can be found. When performing a Schechter analysis also including data from the literature to complete the present sample towards the brightest luminosities, a steep faint end slope was measured varying from α = −1.69−0.08+0.08 to α = −1.87−0.12+0.12 between the lowest and the highest redshift bins.
Conclusions. The contribution of the LAE population to the star formation rate density at z ∼ 6 is ≲50% depending on the luminosity limit considered, which is of the same order as the Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) contribution. The evolution of the LAE contribution with redshift depends on the assumed escape fraction of Lyman-alpha photons, and appears to slightly increase with increasing redshift when this fraction is conservatively set to one. Depending on the intersection between the LAE/LBG populations, the contribution of the observed galaxies to the ionizing flux may suffice to keep the universe ionized at z ∼ 6.</jats:p
The Sparkler: Evolved High-Redshift Globular Clusters Captured by JWST
Using data from JWST, we analyze the compact sources ("sparkles") located
around a remarkable galaxy (the "Sparkler") that is
strongly gravitationally lensed by the galaxy cluster SMACS
J0723.3-7327. Several of these compact sources can be cross-identified in
multiple images, making it clear that they are associated with the host galaxy.
Combining data from JWST's {\em Near-Infrared Camera} (NIRCam) with archival
data from the {\em Hubble Space Telescope} (HST), we perform 0.4-4.4m
photometry on these objects, finding several of them to be very red and
consistent with the colors of quenched, old stellar systems. Morphological fits
confirm that these red sources are spatially unresolved even in strongly
magnified JWST/NIRCam images, while JWST/NIRISS spectra show [OIII]5007
emission in the body of the Sparkler but no indication of star formation in the
red compact sparkles. The most natural interpretation of these compact red
companions to the Sparkler is that they are evolved globular clusters seen at
. Applying \textsc{Dense Basis} SED-fitting to the sample, we infer
formation redshifts of for these globular cluster
candidates, corresponding to ages of Gyr at the epoch of
observation and a formation time just 0.5~Gyr after the Big Bang. If
confirmed with additional spectroscopy, these red, compact "sparkles" represent
the first evolved globular clusters found at high redshift, could be amongst
the earliest observed objects to have quenched their star formation in the
Universe, and may open a new window into understanding globular cluster
formation. Data and code to reproduce our results will be made available at
\faGithub\href{https://niriss.github.io/sparkler.html}{http://canucs-jwst.com/sparkler.html}.Comment: Submitted to ApJL. Comments are welcome. Data and code to reproduce
our results will be made available at niriss.github.io/sparkler.htm
MUSEQuBES: calibrating the redshifts of Ly α emitters using stacked circumgalactic medium absorption profiles
Large scale structure and cosmolog