- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/736/43
- Title:
- Gravitational lensing flexion in A1689 with an AIM
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/736/43
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Measuring dark matter substructure within galaxy cluster halos is a fundamental probe of the {Lambda}CDM model of structure formation. Gravitational lensing is a technique for measuring the total mass distribution which is independent of the nature of the gravitating matter, making it a vital tool for studying these dark-matter-dominated objects. We present a new method for measuring weak gravitational lensing flexion fields, the gradients of the lensing shear field, to measure mass distributions on small angular scales. While previously published methods for measuring flexion focus on measuring derived properties of the lensed images, such as shapelet coefficients or surface brightness moments, our method instead fits a mass-sheet transformation invariant Analytic Image Model (AIM) to each galaxy image. This simple parametric model traces the distortion of lensed image isophotes and constrains the flexion fields. We test the AIM method using simulated data images with realistic noise and a variety of unlensed image properties, and show that it successfully reproduces the input flexion fields. We also apply the AIM method for flexion measurement to Hubble Space Telescope observations of A1689 and detect mass structure in the cluster using flexion measured with this method. We also estimate the scatter in the measured flexion fields due to the unlensed shape of the background galaxies and find values consistent with previous estimates.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/561/106
- Title:
- Gravitational lensing of SN 1997ff
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/561/106
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We investigate the effects of gravitational lensing due to intervening galaxies on the recently discovered Type Ia supernova at z~1.7, SN 1997ff, in the Hubble Deep Field North. We find that it is possible to obtain a wide range of magnifications by varying the mass and/or the velocity dispersion normalization of the lensing galaxies. In order to be able to use SN 1997ff to constrain the redshift-distance relation, very detailed modeling of the galaxies to control the systematic effects from lensing is necessary. Thus, we argue that, based on our current limited knowledge of the lensing galaxies, it is difficult to use SN 1997ff to constrain the values of {Omega}_M_ and {Omega}_{Lambda}, or even to place severe limits on gray dust obscuration or luminosity evolution of Type Ia supernovae.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/600/L155
- Title:
- Gravitational lens in GOODS ACS fields
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/600/L155
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present results from a systematic search for strong gravitational lenses in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) data. The search technique involves creating a sample of likely lensing galaxies, which we define as massive early-type galaxies in a redshift range 0.3<z<1.3. The target galaxies are selected by color and magnitude, giving a sample of 1092 galaxies. For each galaxy in the sample, we subtract a smooth description of the galaxy light from the z850-band data. The residuals are examined, along with true-color images created from the B_435_V_606_i_775_ data, for morphologies indicative of strong lensing. We present our six most promising lens candidates as well as our full list of candidates.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/627/32
- Title:
- Gravitationally lensed arcs in the HST WFPC2 archive
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/627/32
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results of a systematic search for gravitationally lensed arcs in clusters of galaxies located in the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 data archive. By carefully examining the images of 128 clusters we have located 12 candidate radial arcs and 104 tangential arcs, each of whose length-to-width ratio exceeds 7. In addition, 24 other radial arc candidates were identified with a length-to-width ratio of less than 7. Keck spectroscopy of 17 candidate radial arcs suggests that contamination of the radial arc sample from nonlensed objects is ~30%-50%.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/458/2
- Title:
- Gravitationally lensed quasars
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/458/2
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results of an imaging observation campaign conducted with the Subaru Telescope adaptive optics system (IRCS+AO188) on 28 gravitationally lensed quasars and candidates (23 doubles, 1 quad, 1 possible triple, and 3 candidates) from the SDSS Quasar Lens Search. We develop a novel modelling technique that fits analytical and hybrid point spread functions (PSFs), while simultaneously measuring the relative astrometry, photometry, as well as the lens galaxy morphology. We account for systematics by simulating the observed systems using separately observed PSF stars. The measured relative astrometry is comparable with that typically achieved with the Hubble Space Telescope, even after marginalizing over the PSF uncertainty. We model for the first time the quasar host galaxies in five systems, without a priori knowledge of the PSF, and show that their luminosities follow the known correlation with the mass of the supermassive black hole. For each system, we obtain mass models far more accurate than those previously published from low-resolution data, and we show that in our sample of lensing galaxies the observed light profile is more elliptical than the mass, for ellipticity >~0.25. We also identify eight doubles for which the sources of external and internal shear are more reliably separated, and should therefore be prioritized in monitoring campaigns aimed at measuring time delays in order to infer the Hubble constant.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/833/194
- Title:
- Group of galaxies in gravitational lens fields
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/833/194
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- With a large, unique spectroscopic survey in the fields of 28 galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses, we identify groups of galaxies in the 26 adequately sampled fields. Using a group-finding algorithm, we find 210 groups with at least 5 member galaxies; the median number of members is 8. Our sample spans redshifts of 0.04<=z_grp_<=0.76 with a median of 0.31, including 174 groups with 0.1<z_grp_<0.6. The groups have radial velocity dispersions of 60<={sigma}_grp_<=1200km/s with a median of 350km/s. We also discover a supergroup in field B0712+472 at z=0.29 that consists of three main groups. We recover groups similar to ~85% of those previously reported in these fields within our redshift range of sensitivity and find 187 new groups with at least five members. The properties of our group catalog, specifically, (1) the distribution of {sigma}_grp_, (2) the fraction of all sample galaxies that are group members, and (3) the fraction of groups with significant substructure, are consistent with those for other catalogs. The distribution of group virial masses agrees well with theoretical expectations. Of the lens galaxies, 12 of 26 (46%) (B1422+231, B1600+434, B2114+022, FBQS J0951+2635, HE0435-1223, HST J14113+5211, MG0751+2716, MGJ1654+1346, PG 1115+080, Q ER 0047-2808, RXJ1131-1231, and WFI J2033-4723) are members of groups with at least five galaxies, and one more (B0712+472) belongs to an additional, visually identified group candidate. There are groups not associated with the lens that still are likely to affect the lens model; in six of 25 (24%) fields (excluding the supergroup), there is at least one massive ({sigma}_grp_>=500km/s) group or group candidate projected within 2' of the lens.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/465/3558
- Title:
- HATLAS candidate lensed galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/465/3558
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a sample of 80 candidate strongly lensed galaxies with flux density above 100mJy at 500{mu}m extracted from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey, over an area of 600deg^2^. Available imaging and spectroscopic data allow us to confirm the strong lensing in 20 cases and to reject it in one case. For other eight objects, the lensing scenario is strongly supported by the presence of two sources along the same line of sight with distinct photometric redshifts. The remaining objects await more follow-up observations to confirm their nature. The lenses and the background sources have median redshifts z_L_=0.6 and z_S_=2.5, respectively, and are observed out to z_L_=1.2 and z_S_=4.2. We measure the number counts of candidate lensed galaxies at 500{mu}m and compare them with theoretical predictions, finding a good agreement for a maximum magnification of the background sources in the range 10-20. These values are consistent with the magnification factors derived from the lens modelling of individual systems. The catalogue presented here provides sub-mm bright targets for follow-up observations aimed at exploiting gravitational lensing, to study with unprecedented details the morphological and dynamical properties of dusty star-forming regions in z>=1.5 galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/749/65
- Title:
- H-ATLAS search for strongly lensed galaxies
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/749/65
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- While the selection of strongly lensed galaxies (SLGs) with 500{mu}m flux density S_500_>100mJy has proven to be rather straightforward, for many applications it is important to analyze samples larger than the ones obtained when confining ourselves to such a bright limit. Moreover, only by probing to fainter flux densities is it possible to exploit strong lensing to investigate the bulk of the high-z star-forming galaxy population. We describe HALOS (the Herschel-ATLAS Lensed Objects Selection), a method for efficiently selecting fainter candidate SLGs, reaching a surface density of =~1.5-2/deg^2^, i.e., a factor of about 4-6 higher than that at the 100mJy flux limit. HALOS will allow the selection of up to ~1000 candidate SLGs (with amplifications {mu}>~2) over the full H-ATLAS survey area. Applying HALOS to the H-ATLAS Science Demonstration Phase field (=~14.4deg^2^) we find 31 candidate SLGs, whose candidate lenses are identified in the VIKING near-infrared catalog. Using the available information on candidate sources and candidate lenses we tentatively estimate a =~72% purity of the sample. As expected, the purity decreases with decreasing flux density of the sources and with increasing angular separation between candidate sources and lenses. The redshift distribution of the candidate lensed sources is close to that reported for most previous surveys for lensed galaxies, while that of candidate lenses extends to redshifts substantially higher than found in the other surveys. The counts of candidate SLGs are also in good agreement with model predictions. Even though a key ingredient of the method is the deep near-infrared VIKING photometry, we show that H-ATLAS data alone allow the selection of a similarly deep sample of candidate SLGs with an efficiency close to 50%; a slightly lower surface density (=~ 1.45/deg2) can be reached with a ~70% efficiency.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/154/210
- Title:
- 2015 high-cadence Spitzer microlensing events
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/154/210
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We analyze an ensemble of microlensing events from the 2015 Spitzer microlensing campaign, all of which were densely monitored by ground-based high-cadence survey teams. The simultaneous observations from Spitzer and the ground yield measurements of the microlensing parallax vector {pi}_E_, from which compact constraints on the microlens properties are derived, including ~<25% uncertainties on the lens mass and distance. With the current sample, we demonstrate that the majority of microlenses are indeed in the mass range of M dwarfs. The planet sensitivities of all 41 events in the sample are calculated, from which we provide constraints on the planet distribution function. In particular, assuming a planet distribution function that is uniform in log q, where q is the planet-to-star mass ratio, we find a 95% upper limit on the fraction of stars that host typical microlensing planets of 49%, which is consistent with previous studies. Based on this planet-free sample, we develop the methodology to statistically study the Galactic distribution of planets using microlensing parallax measurements. Under the assumption that the planet distributions are the same in the bulge as in the disk, we predict that ~1/3 of all planet detections from the microlensing campaigns with Spitzer should be in the bulge. This prediction will be tested with a much larger sample, and deviations from it can be used to constrain the abundance of planets in the bulge relative to the disk.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/862/156
- Title:
- High-z galaxy candidates in the HFF cluster fields
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/862/156
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Acting as powerful gravitational lenses, the strong lensing galaxy clusters of the deep Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) program permit access to lower-luminosity galaxies lying at higher redshifts than hitherto possible. We analyzed the HFF to measure the volume density of Lyman-break galaxies at z>4.75 by identifying a complete and reliable sample up to z~10. A marked deficit of such galaxies was uncovered in the highly magnified regions of the clusters relative to their outskirts, implying that the magnification of the sky area dominates over additional faint galaxies magnified above the flux limit. This negative magnification bias is consistent with a slow rollover at the faint end of the UV luminosity function and it indicates a preference for Bose-Einstein condensate dark matter with a light boson mass of m_B_~10^-22^eV over standard cold dark matter. We emphasize that measuring the magnification bias requires no correction for multiply-lensed images (with typically three or more images per source), whereas directly reconstructing the luminosity function will lead to an overestimate unless such images can be exhaustively matched up, especially at the faint end that is only accessible in the strongly lensed regions. In addition, we detected a distinctive downward transition in galaxy number density at z>~8, which may be linked to the relatively late reionization reported by Planck. Our results suggests that JWST will likely peer into an "abyss" with essentially no galaxies detected in deep NIR imaging at z>10.
