2,076 research outputs found
The Environments of SLACS Gravitational Lenses
We report on an investigation of the environments of the SLACS sample of
gravitational lenses. The local and global environments of the lenses are
characterized using SDSS photometry and, when available, spectroscopy. We find
that the lens systems that are best modelled with steeper than isothermal
density profiles are more likely to have close companions than lenses with
shallower than isothermal profiles. This suggests that the profile steepening
may be caused by interactions with a companion galaxy as indicated by N-body
simulations of group galaxies. The global environments of the SLACS lenses are
typical of non-lensing SDSS galaxies with comparable properties to the lenses,
and the richnesses of the lens groups are not as strongly correlated with the
lens density profiles as the local environments. Furthermore, we investigate
the possibility of line-of-sight contamination affecting the lens models but do
not find a significant over-density of sources compared to lines of sight
without lenses.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Radio-mode feedback in local AGNs: dependence on the central black hole parameters
Radio mode feedback, in which most of the energy of an active galactic
nucleus (AGN) is released in a kinetic form via radio-emitting jets, is thought
to play an important role in the maintenance of massive galaxies in the
present-day Universe. We study the link between radio emission and the
properties of the central black hole in a large sample of local radio galaxies
drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), based on the catalogue of Best
and Heckman (2012). Our sample is mainly dominated by massive black holes
(mostly in the range ) accreting at very low Eddington
ratios (typically ). In broad agreement with previously
reported trends, we find that radio galaxies are preferentially associated with
the more massive black holes, and that the radio loudness parameter seems to
increase with decreasing Eddington ratio. We compare our results with previous
studies in the literature, noting potential biases. The majority of the local
radio galaxies in our sample are currently in a radiatively inefficient
accretion regime, where kinetic feedback dominates over radiative feedback. We
discuss possible physical interpretations of the observed trends in the context
of a two-stage feedback process involving a transition in the underlying
accretion modes.Comment: accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Societ
Resolving on 100 pc scales the UV-continuum in Lyman- emitters between redshift 2 to 3 with gravitational lensing
We present a study of seventeen LAEs at redshift 23 gravitationally
lensed by massive early-type galaxies (ETGs) at a mean redshift of
approximately 0.5. Using a fully Bayesian grid-based technique, we model the
gravitational lens mass distributions with elliptical power-law profiles and
reconstruct the UV-continuum surface brightness distributions of the background
sources using pixellated source models. We find that the deflectors are close
to, but not consistent with isothermal models in almost all cases, at the
-level. We take advantage of the lensing magnification (typically
20) to characterise the physical and morphological properties of
these LAE galaxies. From reconstructing the ultra-violet continuum emission, we
find that the star-formation rates range from 0.3 to 8.5 M yr
and that the galaxies are typically composed of several compact and diffuse
components, separated by 0.4 to 4 kpc. Moreover, they have peak star-formation
rate intensities that range from 2.1 to 54.1 M yr kpc.
These galaxies tend to be extended with major axis ranging from 0.2 to 1.8 kpc
(median 561 pc), and with a median ellipticity of 0.49. This morphology is
consistent with disk-like structures of star-formation for more than half of
the sample. However, for at least two sources, we also find off-axis components
that may be associated with mergers. Resolved kinematical information will be
needed to confirm the disk-like nature and possible merger scenario for the
LAEs in the sample.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication on MNRA
Lens Galaxy Properties of SBS1520+530: Insights from Keck Spectroscopy and AO Imaging
We report on an investigation of the SBS 1520+530 gravitational lens system
and its environment using archival HST imaging, Keck spectroscopic data, and
Keck adaptive-optics imaging. The AO imaging has allowed us to fix the lens
galaxy properties with a high degree of precision when performing the lens
modeling, and the data indicate that the lens has an elliptical morphology and
perhaps a disk. The new spectroscopic data suggest that previous determinations
of the lens redshift may be incorrect, and we report an updated, though
inconclusive, value z_lens = 0.761. We have also spectroscopically confirmed
the existence of several galaxy groups at approximately the redshift of the
lens system. We create new models of the lens system that explicitly account
for the environment of the lens, and we also include improved constraints on
the lensing galaxy from our adaptive-optics imaging. Lens models created with
these new data can be well-fit with a steeper than isothermal mass slope (alpha
= 2.29, with the density proportional to r^-alpha) if H_0 is fixed at 72
km/s/Mpc; isothermal models require H_0 ~ 50 km/s/Mpc. The steepened profile
may indicate that the lens is in a transient perturbed state caused by
interactions with a nearby galaxy.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap
The Environments of Low and High Luminosity Radio Galaxies at Moderate Redshifts
In the local Universe, high-power radio galaxies live in lower density
environments than low-luminosity radio galaxies. If this trend continues to
higher redshifts, powerful radio galaxies would serve as efficient probes of
moderate redshift groups and poor clusters. Photometric studies of radio
galaxies at 0.3 < z < 0.5 suggest that the radio luminosity-environment
correlation disappears at moderate redshifts, though this could be the result
of foreground/background contamination affecting the photometric measures of
environment. We have obtained multi-object spectroscopy of in the fields of 14
lower luminosity (L_1.4GHz
1.2x10^25 W/Hz) radio galaxies at z ~ 0.3 to spectroscopically investigate the
link between the environment and the radio luminosity of radio galaxies at
moderate redshifts. Our results support the photometric analyses; there does
not appear to be a correlation between the luminosity of a radio galaxy and its
environment at moderate redshifts. Hence, radio galaxies are not efficient
signposts for group environments at moderate redshifts.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in A
Inference of the Cold Dark Matter substructure mass function at z=0.2 using strong gravitational lenses
We present the results of a search for galaxy substructures in a sample of 11
gravitational lens galaxies from the Sloan Lens ACS Survey. We find no
significant detection of mass clumps, except for a luminous satellite in the
system SDSS J0956+5110. We use these non-detections, in combination with a
previous detection in the system SDSS J0946+1006, to derive constraints on the
substructure mass function in massive early-type host galaxies with an average
redshift z ~ 0.2 and an average velocity dispersion of 270 km/s. We perform a
Bayesian inference on the substructure mass function, within a median region of
about 32 kpc squared around the Einstein radius (~4.2 kpc). We infer a mean
projected substructure mass fraction at the 68
percent confidence level and a substructure mass function slope < 2.93
at the 95 percent confidence level for a uniform prior probability density on
alpha. For a Gaussian prior based on Cold Dark Matter (CDM) simulations, we
infer and a slope of =
1.90 at the 68 percent confidence level. Since only one
substructure was detected in the full sample, we have little information on the
mass function slope, which is therefore poorly constrained (i.e. the Bayes
factor shows no positive preference for any of the two models).The inferred
fraction is consistent with the expectations from CDM simulations and with
inference from flux ratio anomalies at the 68 percent confidence level.Comment: Accepted for publication on MNRAS, some typos corrected and some
important references adde
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