Abstract
The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is an excellent survey for the search for strong lenses, thanks to its area, image quality, and depth. We use three different methods ...to look for lenses among 43000 luminous red galaxies from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) sample with photometry from the S16A internal data release of the HSC-SSP. The first method is a newly developed algorithm, named YattaLens, which looks for arc-like features around massive galaxies and then estimates the likelihood of an object being a lens by performing a lens model fit. The second method, Chitah, is a modeling-based algorithm originally developed to look for lensed quasars. The third method makes use of spectroscopic data to look for emission lines from objects at a different redshift from that of the main galaxy. We find 15 definite lenses, 36 highly probable lenses, and 282 possible lenses. Among the three methods, YattaLens, which was developed specifically for this study, performs best in terms of both completeness and purity. Nevertheless, five highly probable lenses were missed by YattaLens but found by the other two methods, indicating that the three methods are highly complementary. Based on these numbers, we expect to find ∼300 definite or probable lenses by the end of the HSC-SSP.
The Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA-II) survey has performed high cadence, wide field observations of the Galactic Bulge from New Zealand since 2005. The hourly cadence of the survey ...during eight months of the year, across nearly 50 deg2 of sky, provides an opportunity to sample asteroid lightcurves in the broad MOA-R filter. We perform photometry of a subset of bright asteroids numbered observed by the survey. We obtain 26 asteroid rotation periods, including for two asteroids where no prior data exist, and present evidence for the possible non-principal axis rotation of (2011) Veteraniya. This archival search could be extended to several thousands of asteroids brighter than 22nd magnitude.
Strong gravitationally lensed quasars provide a powerful means to study galaxy evolution and cosmology. We use CHITAH, which is an algorithm used to hunt for new lens systems, particularly lensed ...quasars, in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC SSP) S16A. We present 46 lens candidates, of which 3 are previously known. We select four high-grade candidates from CHITAH for spectroscopic follow-up observations, and include two additional lenses found by YATTALENS, an algorithm used to classify lensed galaxies. We obtain X-shooter spectra of these six promising candidates for lens confirmation and redshift measurements. We report new spectroscopic redshift measurements for both the lens and source galaxies in four lens systems. We apply the lens modeling software GLEE to model our six X-shooter lenses uniformly. Through our analysis of the HSC images, we find that HSCJ022622−042522, HSCJ115252+004733, and HSCJ141136−010216 have point-like lensed images, and that the lens light distribution is well aligned with the lens mass distribution within 6 deg. We estimate the fluxes of the lensed source emission lines using X-shooter spectra, and use line ratio as a diagnostic on the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram. As a result, we find that HSCJ022622−042522 has a probable quasar source based on the upper limit of the N II flux intensity. We also measure the FWHM of Lyα emission of HSCJ141136−010216 to be ∼233 km s−1, showing that it is a probable Lyman-α emitter.
We performed optical simultaneous dual-band (SDSS
$g^{\kern1.5pt\prime}$
- and i
′-bands) photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy for the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova EZ Lyn during its 2010 ...superoutburst. Dual-band photometry revealed that the
$g^{\kern1.5pt\prime} - i^{\prime}$
color reddened with a decrease in brightness during the main superoutburst and the following rebrightening phase, whereas the color became bluer with a further decrease in brightness during the slow, final decline phase. With a fit to our photometric results by a blackbody function, we estimated the disk radius ratio (ratio of the disk radius to the binary separation) and compared this with that of V455 And, a WZ Sge-type object that did not show any rebrightening in the 2007 superoutburst. The comparison revealed: (1) the disk radius ratio of EZ Lyn decreased more slowly than that of V455 And, and (2) the radius ratio of EZ Lyn at the end of the main superoutburst was larger than that of V455 And. These results favor the mass reservoir model for the mechanism of rebrightening. During both the superoutburst plateau and subsequent rebrightening phase, Hα and Hβ lines were detected. The Hα line showed a double-peak profile from which we estimated the disk radius ratio. The comparison of this ratio with that derived by photometry indicates that the Hα disk was larger than the photometric one, which suggests that the optically thin gas was extended to the outer region more than the optically thick gas disk and was possibly responsible for the rebrightening phenomenon. Time-series dual-band photometry during the main superoutburst revealed that color variations during the early superhump show roughly the same behavior as that of V455 And, whereas color variations during the ordinary superhump display clear anticorrelation with brightness, in contrast to that seen in V455 And. Here, we discuss different color behaviors.
We reanalyse the time-variable light curves of the transiting planetary system PTFO 8-8695, in which a planet of 3 to 4 Jupiter masses orbits a rapidly rotating pre-main-sequence star. Both the ...planetary orbital period P
orb of 0.448 d and the stellar spin period P
s of less than 0.671 d are unusually short, which makes PTFO 8-8695 an ideal system to check the model of gravity darkening and nodal precession. While the previous analysis of PTFO 8-8695 assumed that the stellar spin and planetary orbital periods are the same, we extend the analysis by discarding the spin–orbit synchronous condition, and find three different classes of solutions roughly corresponding to the nodal precession periods of 199 ± 16, 475 ± 21, and 827 ± 53 d that reproduce the transit light curves observed in 2009 and 2010. We compare the predicted light curves of the three solutions against the photometry data of a few percent accuracy obtained at Koyama Astronomical Observatory in 2014 and 2015, and find that the solution with a precession period of 199 ± 16 d is preferred even though it is preliminary. Future prospects and implications for other transiting systems are briefly discussed.
We compare the most successful and widely used map of Galactic dust extinction, provided by Schlegel, Finkbeiner, and Davis (1998, hereafter SFD), to the galaxy number counts in the Sloan Digital Sky ...Survey (SDSS) photometric/spectroscopic DR4 sample. We divide the SDSS survey area into 69 disjoint subregions according to the dust extinction provided by SFD and compare the surface number density of galaxies in each subregion. As expected, the galaxy surface number density decreases with increasing extinction, but only for SFD extinction values above about 0.1 to 0.2 magnitudes (depending on the band). At lower values of the SFD extinction, we find that the sky surface density of galaxies increases with increasing extinction, precisely the opposite of the effect expected from Galactic dust. We also find that the average color of the SDSS photometric galaxy sample is slightly bluer at higher SFD extinctions in this regime, again the opposite of the effect expected from Galactic dust. Even though these anomalies occur only for sight-lines with low SFD extinction values, they affect approximately 68% of the high galactic latitude sky in which galaxies and their clustering properties are normally studied. Although it would be possible to explain these effects with a mysterious component of Galactic dust, which is anti-correlated with the 100
$\mu$
m flux on which the SFD extinction map is based, this model is not physically plausible. Moreover, we find that the surface number density of SDSS photometric quasars does not show any similar effect, as would be expected if the explanation were an unknown Galactic dust component. Considering these results, we suggest that the far infrared (FIR) brightness of the sky in regions of true low dust extinction is significantly “contaminated” by the FIR emission from background galaxies. We show that such an explanation is both qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the available data. Based on this interpretation we conclude that systematic errors in the SFD extinction map due to extragalactic FIR emission are quite small, on the order hundredths of a magnitude, but nevertheless statistically detectable. Unfortunately, however, these errors are also entangled in a complex way with a signal of great interest to many “precision cosmology” applications, namely the large-scale clustering of galaxies.
Strong gravitationally lensed quasars provide a powerful means to study galaxy evolution and cosmology. We use C
HITAH
, which is an algorithm used to hunt for new lens systems, particularly lensed ...quasars, in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC SSP) S16A. We present 46 lens candidates, of which 3 are previously known. We select four high-grade candidates from C
HITAH
for spectroscopic follow-up observations, and include two additional lenses found by Y
ATTA
L
ENS
, an algorithm used to classify lensed galaxies. We obtain X-shooter spectra of these six promising candidates for lens confirmation and redshift measurements. We report new spectroscopic redshift measurements for both the lens and source galaxies in four lens systems. We apply the lens modeling software G
LEE
to model our six X-shooter lenses uniformly. Through our analysis of the HSC images, we find that HSCJ022622−042522, HSCJ115252+004733, and HSCJ141136−010216 have point-like lensed images, and that the lens light distribution is well aligned with the lens mass distribution within 6 deg. We estimate the fluxes of the lensed source emission lines using X-shooter spectra, and use line ratio as a diagnostic on the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram. As a result, we find that HSCJ022622−042522 has a probable quasar source based on the upper limit of the N
II
flux intensity. We also measure the FWHM of Ly
α
emission of HSCJ141136−010216 to be ∼233 km s
−1
, showing that it is a probable Lyman-
α
emitter.
We report the analysis of OGLE-2019-BLG-0960, which contains the smallest mass-ratio microlensing planet found to date (q = 1.2–1.6 × 10^(−5) at 1σ). Although there is substantial uncertainty in the ...satellite parallax measured by Spitzer, the measurement of the annual parallax effect combined with the finite source effect allows us to determine the mass of the host star (M(L) = 0.3–0.6 Mꙩ), the mass of its planet (m(p) = 1.4–3.1 Mꚛ), the projected separation between the host and planet (a(⊥) = 1.2–2.3 au), and the distance to the lens system (D(L) = 0.6–1.2 kpc). The lens is plausibly the blend, which could be checked with adaptive optics observations. As the smallest planet clearly below the break in the mass-ratio function, it demonstrates that current experiments are powerful enough to robustly measure the slope of the mass-ratio function below that break. We find that the cross-section for detecting small planets is maximized for planets with separations just outside of the boundary for resonant caustics and that sensitivity to such planets can be maximized by intensively monitoring events whenever they are magnified by a factor A > 5. Finally, an empirical investigation demonstrates that most planets showing a degeneracy between (s > 1) and (s < 1) solutions are not in the regime (|log s| ≫ 0) for which the "close"/"wide" degeneracy was derived. This investigation suggests that there is a link between the "close"/"wide" and "inner/outer" degeneracies and also that the symmetry in the lens equation goes much deeper than symmetries uncovered for the limiting cases.
We propose a proper method of measuring the size of the narrow-line regions (NLRs) in distant quasars. The apparent angular size of the NLR is, in general, too small to resolve technically. However, ...it is possible to map the NLR with gravitational lensing. In our method, we directly compare the observed image of the NLR with the expected lensed images of the NLR for various source sizes and lens models. Seeking the best-fit image via the comparison procedures, we can obtain the best-fit size and the best-fit lens model. We apply this method to the two-dimensional spectroscopic data of a famous lensed quasar, Q2237+0305. If the lens galaxy resembles the applied lens model, an upper limit to the NLR size can be set of 750 pc. Furthermore, we examine how the fitting results will be improved by future observations, taking into account realistic observational effects, such as seeing. Future observations will provide us more stringent constraints on the size of the NLR and on the density profile of the lens galaxy.
Recently, a “CDM crisis” is being discussed. The main point of this crisis is that the number of substructures presented by cosmological
$N$
-body simulations based on the CDM scenario for structure ...formation is much larger than the observed substructures. Therefore, it is crucial for this crisis to discriminate whether the expected number of CDM substructures really exist without detectable radiation, or do not exist. In this paper, we present a new idea to detect such invisible substructures by utilizing gravitational lensing. Here, we consider quasars that are gravitationally lensed by a foreground galaxy. A substructure around a lensing galaxy may superposed on one of the lensed images of such quasars. In this situation, additional image splitting should occur in the image behind the substructure, and additional multiple images are created. From our estimations, the separation and time delay between the additional multiple images are expected to be
$1 \hbox{--} 30$
milli-arcsecond and
$1 \hbox{--} 10^3$
second, respectively. Furthermore, we evaluate that the optical depth for such events is
$\sim 0.1$
. Consequently, future fine-resolution imaging and/or high-speed monitoring will unable us to find invisible substructures in one of a few multiple quasars.
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