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Register a new userA Systematic Search for Gravitationally-Lensed Arcs in the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Archive
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D.J. Sand
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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 less than 7. Keck spectroscopy of 17 candidate radial arcs suggests that contamination of the radial arc sample from non-lensed objects is ~30-50%. With our catalog, we explore the practicality of using the number ratio of radial to tangential arcs as a statistical measure of the slope beta of the dark matter distribution in cluster cores (where rho_{DM}propto r^{-beta} at small radii). Despite the heterogeneous nature of the cluster sample, we demonstrate that this abundance ratio is fairly constant across various cluster subsamples partitioned according to X-ray luminosity and optical survey depth. We develop the necessary formalism to interpret this ratio in the context of two-component mass models for cluster cores. Although the arc statistics in our survey are consistent with a range of density profiles -- beta<~1.6 depending on various assumptions, we show that one of the prime limiting factors is the distribution of stellar masses for the brightest cluster galaxies. We discuss the prospects for improving the observational constraints and thereby providing a reliable statistical constraint on cluster dark matter profiles on <~100 kpc scales.
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Small galaxies consisting entirely of population III (pop III) stars may form at high redshifts, and could constitute one of the best probes of such stars. Here, we explore the prospects of detecting gravitationally lensed pop III galaxies behind the galaxy cluster J0717.5+3745 (J0717) with both the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). By projecting simulated catalogs of pop III galaxies at z~7-15 through the J0717 magnification maps, we estimate the lensed number counts as a function of flux detection threshold. We find that the ongoing HST survey CLASH, targeting a total of 25 galaxy clusters including J0717, potentially could detect a small number of pop III galaxies if ~1% of the baryons in these systems have been converted into pop III stars. Using JWST exposures of J0717, this limit can be pushed to ~0.1% of the baryons. Ultra-deep JWST observations of unlensed fields are predicted to do somewhat worse, but will be able to probe pop III galaxies with luminosities intermediate between those detectable in HST/CLASH and in JWST observations of J0717. We also explain how current measurements of the galaxy luminosity function at z=7-10 can be used to constrain pop III galaxy models with very high star formation efficiencies (~10% of the baryons converted into pop III stars).
The locations of supernovae in the local stellar and gaseous environment in galaxies contain important clues to their progenitor stars. As part of a program to study the environments of supernovae using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging data, we have examined the environment of the Type II-L SN 1979C in NGC 4321 (M100). We place more rigorous constraints on the mass of the SN progenitor, which may have had a mass M approx 17--18 M_sun. Moreover, we have recovered and measured the brightness of SN 1979C, m=23.37 in F439W (~B; m_B(max) = 11.6), 17 years after explosion. .
We present the results of a systematic search for gravitationally-lensed continuum Lyman break `drop-outs beyond a redshift 7 conducted via very deep imaging through six foreground clusters undertaken with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. The survey has yielded 10 z-band and 2 J-band drop-out candidates to photometric limits of J_110~=26.2 AB (5sigma). Taking into account the magnifications afforded by our clusters (1-4 magnitudes), we probe the presence of z>7 sources to unlensed limits of J_{110}~=30 AB, fainter than those charted in the Hubble Ultradeep Field. To verify the fidelity of our candidates we conduct a number of tests for instrumental effects which would lead to spurious detections, and carefully evaluate the likelihood of foreground contamination by considering photometric uncertainties in the drop-out signature, the upper limits from stacked IRAC data and the statistics of multiply-imaged sources. Overall, we conclude that we can expect about half of our sample of z-band drop-outs are likely to be at high redshift. An ambitious infrared spectroscopic campaign undertaken with the NIRSPEC spectrograph at the WM Keck Observatory for seven of the most promising candidates failed to detect any Lyman-alpha emission highlighting the challenge of making further progress in this field. While the volume density of high redshift sources will likely remain uncertain until more powerful facilities are available, our data provides the first potentially interesting constraints on the UV luminosity function at z~=7.5 at intrinsically faint limits. We discuss the implications of our results in the context of the hypothesis that the bulk of the reionizing photons in the era 7<z<12 arise in low luminosity galaxies undetected by conventional surveys.
Solar system objects with perihelia beyond the orbit of Jupiter ($q >$ 5 AU) are too cold for water ice to generate an appreciable coma via sublimation. Despite this, numerous high perihelion objects (HPOs) including many comets and recently escaped Kuiper belt objects (``Centaurs) are observed to be active out at least to the orbit of Saturn ($q sim$ 10 AU). Peak equilibrium temperatures at 10 AU ($sim$125 K), while far too low to sublimate water ice, are sufficient to sublimate super-volatiles such as CO and CO$_2$ ice. Temperatures at 10 AU are also high enough to trigger the rapid crystallization of exposed amorphous ice, thus constituting another possible driver of distant activity. While supervolatile ices can sublimate strongly (as $r_H^{-2}$) to at least Kuiper belt (30 AU) distances, crystallization is an exponential function of temperature that cannot be sustained much beyond $sim$10 AU. The heliocentric dependence of the activity thus suggests an observational test. If activity in high perihelion objects is triggered by crystallization, then no examples of activity should be found with perihelia $q >>$ 10 AU. If, on the other hand, activity is due to free sublimation of exposed supervolatile ices, or another cause, then distant activity might be detected. We obtained sensitive, high resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations of HPOs to search for activity beyond the crystallization zone. No examples of activity were detected in 53 objects with $q >$ 15 AU, consistent with the crystallization trigger hypothesis. However, sensitivity limits are such that we cannot reject the alternative hypothesis that mass loss is driven by the sublimation of supervolatile ices. We also searched for binary companions in our sample, finding none and setting an empirical 3$sigma$ limit to the binary fraction of $<8$%.
Neutral Hydrogen (HI) provides a very important fuel for star formation, but is difficult to detect at high redshift due to weak emission, limited sensitivity of modern instruments, and terrestrial radio frequency interference (RFI) at low frequencies. We the first attempt to use gravitational lensing to detect HI line emission from three gravitationally lensed galaxies behind the cluster Abell 773, two at redshift of 0.398 and one at z=0.487, using the Green Bank Telescope. We find a 3 sigma upper limit for a galaxy with a rotation velocity of 200 km/s is M_HI=6.58x10^9 and 1.5x10^10 M_solar at z=0.398 and z=0.487. The estimated HI masses of the sources at z=0.398 and z=0.487 are a factor of 3.7 and ~30 times lower than our detection limits at the respective redshifts. To facilitate these observations we have used sigma clipping to remove both narrow- and wide-band RFI but retain the signal from the source. We are able to reduce the noise of the spectrum by ~25% using our routine instead of discarding observations with too much RFI. The routine is most effective when ~10 of the integrations or fewer contains RFI. These techniques can be used to study HI in highly magnified distant galaxies that are otherwise too faint to detect.
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