We present a catalogue of 348 galaxy clusters and groups with $0.2<z<1.2$ selected in the 2.78 $deg^2$ ALHAMBRA Survey. The high precision of our photometric redshifts, close to $1%$, and the wide spread of the seven ALHAMBRA pointings ensure that th
is catalogue has better mass sensitivity and is less affected by cosmic variance than comparable samples. The detection has been carried out with the Bayesian Cluster Finder (BCF), whose performance has been checked in ALHAMBRA-like light-cone mock catalogues. Great care has been taken to ensure that the observable properties of the mocks photometry accurately correspond to those of real catalogues. From our simulations, we expect to detect galaxy clusters and groups with both $70%$ completeness and purity down to dark matter halo masses of $M_hsim3times10^{13}rm M_{odot}$ for $z<0.85$. Cluster redshifts are expected to be recovered with $sim0.6%$ precision for $z<1$. We also expect to measure cluster masses with $sigma_{M_h|M^*_{CL}}sim0.25-0.35, dex$ precision down to $sim3times10^{13}rm M_{odot}$, masses which are $50%$ smaller than those reached by similar work. We have compared these detections with previous optical, spectroscopic and X-rays work, finding an excellent agreement with the rates reported from the simulations. We have also explored the overall properties of these detections such as the presence of a colour-magnitude relation, the evolution of the photometric blue fraction and the clustering of these sources in the different ALHAMBRA fields. Despite the small numbers, we observe tentative evidence that, for a fixed stellar mass, the environment is playing a crucial role at lower redshifts (z$<$0.5).
Our aim in this work is to answer, using simulated narrow-band photometry data, the following general question: What can we learn about galaxies from these new generation cosmological surveys? For instance, can we estimate stellar age and metallicity
distributions? Can we separate star-forming galaxies from AGN? Can we measure emission lines, nebular abundances and extinction? With what precision? To accomplish this, we selected a sample of about 300k galaxies with good S/N from the SDSS and divided them in two groups: 200k objects and a template library of 100k. We corrected the spectra to $z = 0$ and converted them to filter fluxes. Using a statistical approach, we calculated a Probability Distribution Function (PDF) for each property of each object and the library. Since we have the properties of all the data from the {sc starlight}-SDSS database, we could compare them with the results obtained from summaries of the PDF (mean, median, etc). Our results shows that we retrieve the weighted average of the log of the galaxy age with a good error margin ($sigma approx 0.1 - 0.2$ dex), and similarly for the physical properties such as mass-to-light ratio, mean stellar metallicity, etc. Furthermore, our main result is that we can derive emission line intensities and ratios with similar precision. This makes this method unique in comparison to the other methods on the market to analyze photometry data and shows that, from the point of view of galaxy studies, future photometric surveys will be much more useful than anticipated.
The Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH) is a 524-orbit multi-cycle treasury program to use the gravitational lensing properties of 25 galaxy clusters to accurately constrain their mass distributions. The survey, described in deta
il in this paper, will definitively establish the degree of concentration of dark matter in the cluster cores, a key prediction of CDM. The CLASH cluster sample is larger and less biased than current samples of space-based imaging studies of clusters to similar depth, as we have minimized lensing-based selection that favors systems with overly dense cores. Specifically, twenty CLASH clusters are solely X-ray selected. The X-ray selected clusters are massive (kT > 5 keV; 5 - 30 x 10^14 M_solar) and, in most cases, dynamically relaxed. Five additional clusters are included for their lensing strength (Einstein radii > 35 arcsec at z_source = 2) to further quantify the lensing bias on concentration, to yield high resolution dark matter maps, and to optimize the likelihood of finding highly magnified high-redshift (z > 7) galaxies. The high magnification, in some cases, provides angular resolutions unobtainable with any current UVOIR facility and can yield z > 7 candidates bright enough for spectroscopic follow-up. A total of 16 broadband filters, spanning the near-UV to near-IR, are employed for each 20-orbit campaign on each cluster. These data are used to measure precise (sigma_phz < 0.02(1+z)) photometric redshifts for dozens of newly discovered multiply-lensed images per cluster. Observations of each cluster are spread over 8 epochs to enable a search, primarily in the parallel fields, for Type Ia supernovae at z > 1 to improve constraints on the time dependence of the dark energy equation of state and the evolution of such supernovae in an epoch when the universe is matter dominated.
We present a strong lensing mass model of Abell 1689 which resolves substructures ~25 kpc across (including about ten individual galaxy subhalos) within the central ~400 kpc diameter. We achieve this resolution by perfectly reproducing the observed (
strongly lensed) input positions of 168 multiple images of 55 knots residing within 135 images of 42 galaxies. Our model makes no assumptions about light tracing mass, yet we reproduce the brightest visible structures with some slight deviations. A1689 remains one of the strongest known lenses on the sky, with an Einstein radius of RE = 47.0 +/- 1.2 (143 +3/-4 kpc) for a lensed source at zs = 2. We find a single NFW or Sersic prole yields a good fit simultaneously (with only slight tension) to both our strong lensing (SL) mass model and published weak lensing (WL) measurements at larger radius (out to the virial radius). According to this NFW fit, A1689 has a mass of Mvir = 2.0 +0.5/-0.3 x 10^15 Msun / h70 (M200 = 1.8 +0.4/-0.3 x 10^15 Msun / h70) within the virial radius rvir = 3.0 +/- 0.2 Mpc / h70 (r200 = 2.4 +0.1/-0.2 Mpc / h70), and a central concentration cvir = 11.5 +1.5/-1.4 (c200 = 9.2 +/- 1.2). Our SL model prefers slightly higher concentrations than previous SL models, bringing our SL+WL constraints in line with other recent derivations. Our results support those of previous studies which find A1689 has either an anomalously large concentration or significant extra mass along the line of sight (perhaps in part due to triaxiality). If clusters are generally found to have higher concentrations than realized in simulations, this could indicate they formed earlier, perhaps as a result of early dark energy.
