ABSTRACT Using the full 6 years of imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey, we study the surface brightness profiles of galaxy cluster central galaxies and intra-cluster light. We apply a ‘stacking’ ...method to over 4000 galaxy clusters identified by the redMaPPer cluster finder in the redshift range of 0.2−0.5. This yields high-signal-to-noise circularly averaged profile measurements of the central galaxy and intra-cluster light out to 1 Mpc from the cluster centre. Using redMaPPer richness as a cluster mass indicator, we find that the brightness of the intra-cluster light has a strong mass dependence throughout the 0.2−0.5 redshift range, and this dependence grows stronger at a larger radius. In terms of redshift evolution, we find some evidence that the central galaxy, as well as the diffuse light within the transition region between the cluster central galaxy and intra-cluster light within 80 kpc from the centre, may be growing over time. At larger radii, more than 80 kpc away from the cluster centre, we do not detect evidence of additional redshift evolution beyond the cluster mass dependence, consistent with the findings from the IllustrisTNG hydrodynamic simulation. We speculate that the major driver of intra-cluster light growth, especially at large radii, is associated with cluster mass growth. Finally, we find that the colour of the cluster central galaxy and intra-cluster light displays a radial gradient that becomes bluer at a larger radius, which is consistent with a stellar stripping and disruption origin of intra-cluster light as suggested by simulation studies.
Abstract
We report the methods of and initial scientific inferences from the extraction of precision photometric information for the >800 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) discovered in the images of ...the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Scene-modeling photometry is used to obtain shot-noise-limited flux measures for each exposure of each TNO, with background sources subtracted. Comparison of double-source fits to the pixel data with single-source fits are used to identify and characterize two binary TNO systems. A Markov Chain Monte Carlo method samples the joint likelihood of the intrinsic colors of each source as well as the amplitude of its flux variation, given the time series of multiband flux measurements and their uncertainties. A catalog of these colors and light-curve amplitudes
A
is included with this publication. We show how to assign a likelihood to the distribution
q
(
A
) of light-curve amplitudes in any subpopulation. Using this method, we find decisive evidence (i.e., evidence ratio <0.01) that cold classical (CC) TNOs with absolute magnitude 6 <
H
r
< 8.2 are more variable than the hot classical (HC) population of the same
H
r
, reinforcing theories that the former form in situ and the latter arise from a different physical population. Resonant and scattering TNOs in this
H
r
range have variability consistent with either the HCs or CCs. DES TNOs with
H
r
< 6 are seen to be decisively less variable than higher-
H
r
members of any dynamical group, as expected. More surprising is that detached TNOs are decisively less variable than scattering TNOs, which requires them to have distinct source regions or some subsequent differential processing.
ABSTRACT
We compare the two largest galaxy morphology catalogues, which separate early- and late-type galaxies at intermediate redshift. The two catalogues were built by applying supervised deep ...learning (convolutional neural networks, CNNs) to the Dark Energy Survey data down to a magnitude limit of ∼21 mag. The methodologies used for the construction of the catalogues include differences such as the cutout sizes, the labels used for training, and the input to the CNN – monochromatic images versus gri-band normalized images. In addition, one catalogue is trained using bright galaxies observed with DES (i < 18), while the other is trained with bright galaxies (r < 17.5) and ‘emulated’ galaxies up to r-band magnitude 22.5. Despite the different approaches, the agreement between the two catalogues is excellent up to i < 19, demonstrating that CNN predictions are reliable for samples at least one magnitude fainter than the training sample limit. It also shows that morphological classifications based on monochromatic images are comparable to those based on gri-band images, at least in the bright regime. At fainter magnitudes, i > 19, the overall agreement is good (∼95 per cent), but is mostly driven by the large spiral fraction in the two catalogues. In contrast, the agreement within the elliptical population is not as good, especially at faint magnitudes. By studying the mismatched cases, we are able to identify lenticular galaxies (at least up to i < 19), which are difficult to distinguish using standard classification approaches. The synergy of both catalogues provides an unique opportunity to select a population of unusual galaxies.
ABSTRACT
We investigate the ability of human ‘expert’ classifiers to identify strong gravitational lens candidates in Dark Energy Survey like imaging. We recruited a total of 55 people that completed ...more than 25 per cent of the project. During the classification task, we present to the participants 1489 images. The sample contains a variety of data including lens simulations, real lenses, non-lens examples, and unlabelled data. We find that experts are extremely good at finding bright, well-resolved Einstein rings, while arcs with g-band signal to noise less than ∼25 or Einstein radii less than ∼1.2 times the seeing are rarely recovered. Very few non-lenses are scored highly. There is substantial variation in the performance of individual classifiers, but they do not appear to depend on the classifier’s experience, confidence or academic position. These variations can be mitigated with a team of 6 or more independent classifiers. Our results give confidence that humans are a reliable pruning step for lens candidates, providing pure and quantifiably complete samples for follow-up studies.
Studies of Galactic chemical, and dynamical evolution in the solar neighborhood depend on the availability of precise atmospheric parameters (effective temperature Tsubeff , metallicity Fe/H, and ...surface gravity log g) for solar-type stars. In this work, we use an alternative method based on spectral indices to determine the atmospheric parameters of a sample of nearby FGK dwarfs and sub-giants observed by the MARVELS survey at moderate resolving power. To avoid a time-consuming manual analysis, we have developed three codes to automatically normalize the observed spectra, measure the equivalent widths of the indices, and, through a comparison of those with values calculated with predetermined calibrations, estimate the atmospheric parameters of the stars. Our approach was able to recover the parameters within 80 K for Tsubeff, 0.05 dex for Fe/H, and 0.15 dex for log g, values that are lower than or equal to the typical external uncertainties found between different high-resolution analysis. The results show that the spectral indices are a competitive tool to characterize stars with intermediate resolution spectra.
Wide angle and deep surveys, regardless of their primary purpose, always sample a large number of stars in the Galaxy and in its satellite system. Here we make a forecast of the expected stellar ...sample resulting from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the perspectives that it will open for studies of Galactic structure and resolved stellar populations in general. An estimated 1.2 X 108 stars will be sampled in DES grizY filters in the southern equatorial hemisphere. This roughly corresponds to 20% of all DES sources. Most of these stars belong to the stellar thick disk and halo of the Galaxy. DES will probe low-mass stellar and sub-stellar objects at depths from three to eight times larger than those in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The faint end of the main sequence (MS) will be densely sampled beyond 10 kpc. The slope of the low mass end of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) will be constrained to within a few hundredths of dex, even in the thick disk and halo. In the sub-stellar mass regime, the IMF slope will be potentially constrained to within dlog (m)/dlog m 0.1. About 3 X 104 brown dwarf candidates and at least 7.6 X 105 white dwarf candidates will be selected, the latter embedded into the thick disk and halo, for future follow-up. The stellar halo flattening will also be constrained to within a few percent. DES will probe the MS of new Milky Way satellites and halo clusters for distances out to 120 kpc, therefore yielding stellar surface density contrasts 1.6-1.7 times larger than those attainable with SDSS. It will also allow detection of these objects in the far reaches of the stellar halo, substantially increasing the number and quality of probes to the Galactic potential. Combined with northern samples, such as the SDSS, the DES stellar sample will yield constraints on the structure and stellar populations of Galactic components in unprecedented detail. In particular, the combined sample from both hemispheres will allow detailed studies of halo and thick disk asymmetries and triaxiality.
ABSTRACT
We present multiwavelength spectral and temporal variability analysis of PKS 0027-426 using optical griz observations from Dark Energy Survey between 2013 and 2018 and VEILS Optical Light ...curves of Extragalactic TransienT Events (VOILETTE) between 2018 and 2019 and near-infrared (NIR) JKs observations from Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Extragalactic Infrared Legacy Survey (VEILS) between 2017 and 2019. Multiple methods of cross-correlation of each combination of light curve provides measurements of possible lags between optical–optical, optical–NIR, and NIR–NIR emission, for each observation season and for the entire observational period. Inter-band time lag measurements consistently suggest either simultaneous emission or delays between emission regions on time-scales smaller than the cadences of observations. The colour–magnitude relation between each combination of filters was also studied to determine the spectral behaviour of PKS 0027-426. Our results demonstrate complex colour behaviour that changes between bluer when brighter, stable when brighter, and redder when brighter trends over different time-scales and using different combinations of optical filters. Additional analysis of the optical spectra is performed to provide further understanding of this complex spectral behaviour.
ABSTRACT
We report the identification of a low-mass active galactic nucleus (AGN), DES J0218−0430, in a redshift z = 0.823 galaxy in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Supernova field. We select ...DES J0218−0430 as an AGN candidate by characterizing its long-term optical variability alone based on DES optical broad-band light curves spanning over 6 yr. An archival optical spectrum from the fourth phase of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey shows both broad Mg ii and broad H β lines, confirming its nature as a broad-line AGN. Archival XMM–Newton X-ray observations suggest an intrinsic hard X-ray luminosity of $L_{{\rm 2-12\, keV}}\approx 7.6\pm 0.4\times 10^{43}$ erg s−1, which exceeds those of the most X-ray luminous starburst galaxies, in support of an AGN driving the optical variability. Based on the broad H β from SDSS spectrum, we estimate a virial black hole (BH) mass of M• ≈ 106.43–106.72 M⊙ (with the error denoting the systematic uncertainty from different calibrations), consistent with the estimation from OzDES, making it the lowest mass AGN with redshift > 0.4 detected in optical. We estimate the host galaxy stellar mass to be M* ≈ 1010.5 ± 0.3 M⊙ based on modelling the multiwavelength spectral energy distribution. DES J0218−0430 extends the M•–M* relation observed in luminous AGNs at z ∼ 1 to masses lower than being probed by previous work. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of using optical variability to identify low-mass AGNs at higher redshift in deeper synoptic surveys with direct implications for the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time at Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
We measure radial gradients of the Mg sub(2) index in 15 E-E/S0 and 14 SO galaxies. Our homogeneous data set covers a large range of internal stellar velocity dispersions (2.0 < log sigma < 2.5) and ...Mg sub(2) gradients Delta Mg sub(2)/ Delta log (r/r* sub(e)) up to -0.14 mag dex super(-1). We find for the first time a noticeable lower boundary in the relation between Mg sub(2) gradient and sigma along the full range of sigma , which may be populated by galaxies predominantly formed by monolithic collapse. At high sigma , galaxies showing flatter gradients could represent objects that suffered either important merging episodes or later gas accretion. These processes contribute to the flattening of the metallicity gradients, and their increasing importance could define the distribution of the objects above the boundary expected by the "classical" monolithic process. This result is in marked contrast to previous works, which found a correlation between Delta Mg sub(2)/ Delta log (r/r* sub(e)) and sigma confined to the low-mass galaxies, suggesting that only galaxies below some limiting sigma were formed by collapse, whereas the massive ones were formed by mergers. We show observational evidence that a hybrid scenario could also arise among massive galaxies. Finally, we estimate Delta Z/H from Mg sub(2) and H beta measurements and single stellar population models. The conclusions remain the same, indicating that the results cannot be ascribed to age effects on Mg sub(2).
PDF
