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# The Serendipitous Observation of a Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy at z = 0.9057 from the Blanco Cosmology Survey: The Elliot Arc

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(Impact Factor: 5.99). 11/2011; 742(1):48. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/742/1/48
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT

We report on the serendipitous discovery in the Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) imaging data of a z = 0.9057 galaxy that is being strongly lensed by a massive galaxy cluster at a redshift of z = 0.3838. The lens (BCS J2352–5452) was discovered while examining i- and z-band images being acquired in 2006 October during a BCS observing run. Follow-up spectroscopic observations with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument on the Gemini-South 8 m telescope confirmed the lensing nature of this system. Using weak-plus-strong lensing, velocity dispersion, cluster richness N
200, and fitting to a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) cluster mass density profile, we have made three independent estimates of the mass M
200 which are all very consistent with each other. The combination of the results from the three methods gives M
200 = (5.1 ± 1.3) × 1014M
☉, which is fully consistent with the individual measurements. The final NFW concentration c
200 from the combined fit is c
200 = 5.4+1.4– 1.1. We have compared our measurements of M
200 and c
200 with predictions for (1) clusters from ΛCDM simulations, (2) lensing-selected clusters from simulations, and (3) a real sample of cluster lenses. We find that we are most compatible with the predictions for ΛCDM simulations for lensing clusters, and we see no evidence based on this one system for an increased concentration compared to ΛCDM. Finally, using the flux measured from the [O II]3727 line we have determined the star formation rate of the source galaxy and find it to be rather modest given the assumed lens magnification.

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Available from: Sahar S. Allam, Sep 15, 2014
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##### Article: Galaxy Clusters Discovered via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in the First 720 Square Degrees of the South Pole Telescope Survey
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ABSTRACT: We present a catalog of 224 galaxy cluster candidates, selected through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signature in the first 720 deg2 of the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey. This area was mapped with the SPT in the 2008 and 2009 austral winters to a depth of 18 uK-arcmin at 150 GHz; 550 deg2 of it was also mapped to 44 uK-arcmin at 95 GHz. Based on optical imaging of all candidates and near-infrared imaging of the majority of candidates, we have found optical and/or infrared counterparts for 158 clusters. Of these, 135 were first identified as clusters in SPT data, including 117 new discoveries reported in this work. This catalog triples the number of confirmed galaxy clusters discovered through the SZ effect. We report photometrically derived (and in some cases spectroscopic) redshifts for confirmed clusters and redshift lower limits for the remaining candidates. The catalog extends to high redshift with a median redshift of z = 0.55 and maximum redshift of z = 1.37. Based on simulations, we expect the catalog to be nearly 100% complete above M500 ~ 5e14 Msun h_{70}^-1 at z > 0.6. There are 121 candidates detected at signal-to-noise greater than five, at which the catalog purity is measured to be 95%. From this high-purity subsample, we exclude the z < 0.3 clusters and use the remaining 100 candidates to improve cosmological constraints following the method presented by Benson et al., 2011. Adding the cluster data to CMB+BAO+H0 data leads to a preference for non-zero neutrino masses while only slightly reducing the upper limit on the sum of neutrino masses to sum mnu < 0.38 eV (95% CL). For a spatially flat wCDM cosmological model, the addition of this catalog to the CMB+BAO+H0+SNe results yields sigma8=0.807+-0.027 and w = -1.010+-0.058, improving the constraints on these parameters by a factor of 1.4 and 1.3, respectively. [abbrev]
Full-text · Article · Mar 2012 · The Astrophysical Journal
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ABSTRACT: The Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) is a 60 night imaging survey of $\sim$80 deg$^2$ of the southern sky located in two fields: ($\alpha$,$\delta$)= (5 hr, $-55^{\circ}$) and (23 hr, $-55^{\circ}$). The survey was carried out between 2005 and 2008 in $griz$ bands with the Mosaic2 imager on the Blanco 4m telescope. The primary aim of the BCS survey is to provide the data required to optically confirm and measure photometric redshifts for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect selected galaxy clusters from the South Pole Telescope and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We process and calibrate the BCS data, carrying out PSF corrected model fitting photometry for all detected objects. The median 10$\sigma$ galaxy (point source) depths over the survey in $griz$ are approximately 23.3 (23.9), 23.4 (24.0), 23.0 (23.6) and 21.3 (22.1), respectively. The astrometric accuracy relative to the USNO-B survey is $\sim45$ milli-arcsec. We calibrate our absolute photometry using the stellar locus in $grizJ$ bands, and thus our absolute photometric scale derives from 2MASS which has $\sim2$% accuracy. The scatter of stars about the stellar locus indicates a systematics floor in the relative stellar photometric scatter in $griz$ that is $\sim$1.9%, $\sim$2.2%, $\sim$2.7% and$\sim$2.7%, respectively. A simple cut in the AstrOmatic star-galaxy classifier {\tt spread\_model} produces a star sample with good spatial uniformity. We use the resulting photometric catalogs to calibrate photometric redshifts for the survey and demonstrate scatter $\delta z/(1+z)=0.054$ with an outlier fraction $\eta<5$% to $z\sim1$. We highlight some selected science results to date and provide a full description of the released data products.
Full-text · Article · Apr 2012 · The Astrophysical Journal
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##### Article: Redshifts, Sample Purity, and BCG Positions for the Galaxy Cluster Catalog from the First 720 Square Degrees of the South Pole Telescope Survey
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ABSTRACT: We present the results of the ground- and space-based optical and near-infrared (NIR) follow-up of 224 galaxy cluster candidates detected with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect in the 720 deg2 of the South Pole Telescope (SPT) survey completed in the 2008 and 2009 observing seasons. We use the optical/NIR data to establish whether each candidate is associated with an overdensity of galaxies and to estimate the cluster redshift. Most photometric redshifts are derived through a combination of three different cluster redshift estimators using red-sequence galaxies, resulting in an accuracy of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.017, determined through comparison with a subsample of 57 clusters for which we have spectroscopic redshifts. We successfully measure redshifts for 158 systems and present redshift lower limits for the remaining candidates. The redshift distribution of the confirmed clusters extends to z = 1.35 with a median of z med = 0.57. Approximately 18% of the sample with measured redshifts lies at z > 0.8. We estimate a lower limit to the purity of this SPT SZ-selected sample by assuming that all unconfirmed clusters are noise fluctuations in the SPT data. We show that the cumulative purity at detection significance ξ > 5(ξ > 4.5) is ≥95% (≥70%). We present the red brightest cluster galaxy (rBCG) positions for the sample and examine the offsets between the SPT candidate position and the rBCG. The radial distribution of offsets is similar to that seen in X-ray-selected cluster samples, providing no evidence that SZ-selected cluster samples include a different fraction of recent mergers from X-ray-selected cluster samples.
Full-text · Article · Jul 2012 · The Astrophysical Journal
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