We present gas mass fractions of 38 massive galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.14 , z , 0.89, derived from Chandra X-ray and OVRO/BIMA interferometric Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) measurements. We use ...three models for the gas distribution: (1) an isothermal b-model fit jointly to the X-ray data at radii beyond 100 kpc and to all of the SZE data, (2) a nonisothermal double b-model in hydrostatic equilibrium with a Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) dark matter distribution, fit jointly to all of the X-ray and SZE data, and (3) an isothermal b-model fit only to the SZE spatial data. We show that the isothermal model well characterizes the intracluster medium outside the cluster core and provides good fits to clusters with a range of morphological properties. X-ray and SZE mean gas mass fractions for model 1 are f sub(gas)(X-ray) = 0.110 c 0.003 super(+0.006-0.018) and f sub(gas)(SZE) = 0.116 c 0.005 super(+0.009-0.025) assuming ( sub(M), sub( ),h) = (0.3,0.7,0.7); uncertainties are statistical followed by systematic at 68% confidence. For model 2, f sub(gas)(X-ray) = 0.119 c 0.003 super(+0.007-0.014) and f sub(gas)(SZE) = 0.121 c 0.005 super(+0.009-0.016). For model 3, f sub(gas)(SZE) = 0.120 c 0.009 super(+0.009-0.027). The agreement in the results shows that the core can be accounted for satisfactorily by either excluding it from fits to the X-ray data or modeling the intracluster gas with a nonisothermal double b-model. We find that the SZE is largely insensitive to core structure. Our results indicate that the ratio of gas mass fraction within r sub(2500) to the cosmic baryon fraction, f sub(gas)/ ( sub(B)/ sub(M)), is 0.68 super(+0.10-0.16), where statistical and systematic uncertainties are included at 68% confidence. By assuming that cluster gas mass fractions are independent of redshift, we find that the results agree with standard CDM cosmology and are inconsistent with a flat matter-dominated ( sub(M) = 1) universe.
We report the detection of CO(1-0) line emission in the bright, lensed star-forming galaxies SPT-S 233227−5358.5 (z = 2.73) and SPT-S 053816−5030.8 (z = 2.78), using the Australia Telescope Compact ...Array. Both galaxies were discovered in a large-area millimetre survey with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and found to be gravitationally lensed by intervening structures. The measured CO intensities imply galaxies with molecular gas masses of (3.2 ± 0.5) × 1010(μ/15)−1(X
CO/0.8) and (1.7 ± 0.3) × 1010(μ/20)−1(X
CO/0.8) M, and gas depletion time-scales of 4.9 × 107(X
CO/0.8) and 2.6 × 107(X
CO/0.8) yr, respectively, where μ corresponds to the lens magnification and X
CO is the CO luminosity to gas mass conversion factor. In the case of SPT-S 053816−5030.8, we also obtained significant detections of the rest-frame 115.7 and 132.4 GHz radio continuum. Based on the radio-to-infrared spectral energy distribution and an assumed synchrotron spectral index, we find that 42 ± 10 and 55 ± 13 per cent of the flux at rest-frame 115.7 and 132.4 GHz arises from free-free emission. We find a radio-derived intrinsic star formation rate of 470 ± 170 M yr−1, consistent within the uncertainties with the infrared estimate. Based on the morphology of this object in the source plane, the derived gas mass and the possible flattening of the radio spectral index towards low frequencies, we argue that SPT-S 053816−5030.8 exhibits properties compatible with a scaled-up local ultraluminous infrared galaxy.
Gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background generates a curl pattern in the observed polarization. This "B-mode" signal provides a measure of the projected mass distribution over the ...entire observable Universe and also acts as a contaminant for the measurement of primordial gravity-wave signals. In this Letter we present the first detection of gravitational lensing B modes, using first-season data from the polarization-sensitive receiver on the South Pole Telescope (SPTpol). We construct a template for the lensing B-mode signal by combining E-mode polarization measured by SPTpol with estimates of the lensing potential from a Herschel-SPIRE map of the cosmic infrared background. We compare this template to the B modes measured directly by SPTpol, finding a nonzero correlation at 7.7σ significance. The correlation has an amplitude and scale dependence consistent with theoretical expectations, is robust with respect to analysis choices, and constitutes the first measurement of a powerful cosmological observable.
COSMOS: Hubble Space Telescope Observations Scoville, N; Abraham, R. G; Aussel, H ...
The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series,
09/2007, Volume:
172, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) was Initiated with an extensive allocation (590 orbits in Cycles 12-13) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for high-resolution imaging. Here we review the ...characteristics of the HST imaging with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and parallel observations with NICMOS and WFPC2. A square field (1.8 deg super(2)) has been imaged with single-orbit ACS I-band F814W exposures with 50% completeness for sources 0.5" in diameter at I sub(AB) = 26.0 mag. The ACS is a key part of the COSMOS survey, providing very high sensitivity and high-resolution (0.09" FWHM and 0.05" pixels) imaging and detecting a million objects. These images yield resolved morphologies for several hundred thousand galaxies. The small HST PSF also provides greatly enhanced sensitivity for weak-lensing investigations of the dark matter distribution.
We present a catalog of galaxy cluster candidates detected in 100 square degrees surveyed with the SPTpol receiver on the South Pole Telescope. The catalog contains 89 candidates detected with a ...signal-to-noise ratio greater than 4.6. The candidates are selected using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect at 95 and 150 GHz. Using both space- and ground-based optical and infrared telescopes, we have confirmed 81 candidates as galaxy clusters. We use these follow-up images and archival images to estimate photometric redshifts for 66 galaxy clusters and spectroscopic observations to obtain redshifts for 13 systems. An additional two galaxy clusters are confirmed using the overdensity of near-infrared galaxies only and are presented without redshifts. We find that 15 candidates (18% of the total sample) are at redshift z ≥ 1.0, with a maximum confirmed redshift of . We expect this catalog to contain every galaxy cluster with and z > 0.25 in the survey area. The mass threshold is approximately constant above z = 0.25, and the complete catalog has a median mass of approximately . Compared to previous SPT works, the increased depth of the millimeter-wave data (11.2 and 6.5 K-arcmin at 95 and 150 GHz, respectively) makes it possible to find more galaxy clusters at high redshift and lower mass.
ABSTRACT We present a multiwavelength study of the 90 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of galaxy clusters selected via the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect by the South Pole Telescope, ...utilizing data from various ground- and space-based facilities. We infer the star-formation rate (SFR) for the BCG in each cluster-based on the UV and IR continuum luminosity, as well as the O iiλλ3726,3729 emission line luminosity in cases where spectroscopy is available-and find seven systems with SFR > 100 M yr−1. We find that the BCG SFR exceeds 10 M yr−1 in 31 of 90 (34%) cases at 0.25 < z < 1.25, compared to ∼1%-5% at z ∼ 0 from the literature. At z 1, this fraction increases to %, implying a steady decrease in the BCG SFR over the past ∼9 Gyr. At low-z, we find that the specific SFR in BCGs is declining more slowly with time than for field or cluster galaxies, which is most likely due to the replenishing fuel from the cooling ICM in relaxed, cool core clusters. At z 0.6, the correlation between the cluster central entropy and BCG star formation-which is well established at z ∼ 0-is not present. Instead, we find that the most star-forming BCGs at high-z are found in the cores of dynamically unrelaxed clusters. We use data from the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the rest-frame near-UV morphology of a subsample of the most star-forming BCGs, and find complex, highly asymmetric UV morphologies on scales as large as ∼50-60 kpc. The high fraction of star-forming BCGs hosted in unrelaxed, non-cool core clusters at early times suggests that the dominant mode of fueling star formation in BCGs may have recently transitioned from galaxy-galaxy interactions to ICM cooling.
Abstract
SPT-3G is the third survey receiver operating on the South Pole Telescope dedicated to high-resolution observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Sensitive measurements of the ...temperature and polarization anisotropies of the CMB provide a powerful data set for constraining cosmology. Additionally, CMB surveys with arcminute-scale resolution are capable of detecting galaxy clusters, millimeter-wave bright galaxies, and a variety of transient phenomena. The SPT-3G instrument provides a significant improvement in mapping speed over its predecessors, SPT-SZ and SPTpol. The broadband optics design of the instrument achieves a 430 mm diameter image plane across observing bands of 95, 150, and 220 GHz, with 1.2′ FWHM beam response at 150 GHz. In the receiver, this image plane is populated with 2690 dual-polarization, trichroic pixels (∼16,000 detectors) read out using a 68× digital frequency-domain multiplexing readout system. In 2018, SPT-3G began a multiyear survey of 1500 deg
2
of the southern sky. We summarize the unique optical, cryogenic, detector, and readout technologies employed in SPT-3G, and we report on the integrated performance of the instrument.
The SPTpol Extended Cluster Survey Bleem, L. E.; Bocquet, S.; Stalder, B. ...
The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series,
03/2020, Volume:
247, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We describe the observations and resultant galaxy cluster catalog from the 2770 deg2 SPTpol Extended Cluster Survey (SPT-ECS). Clusters are identified via the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect and ...confirmed with a combination of archival and targeted follow-up data, making particular use of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). With incomplete follow-up we have confirmed as clusters 244 of 266 candidates at a detection significance ≥ 5 and an additional 204 systems at 4 < < 5. The confirmed sample has a median mass of and a median redshift of z = 0.49, and we have identified 44 strong gravitational lenses in the sample thus far. Radio data are used to characterize contamination to the SZ signal; the median contamination for confirmed clusters is predicted to be ∼1% of the SZ signal at the > 4 threshold, and <4% of clusters have a predicted contamination >10% of their measured SZ flux. We associate SZ-selected clusters, from both SPT-ECS and the SPT-SZ survey, with clusters from the DES redMaPPer sample, and we find an offset distribution between the SZ center and central galaxy in general agreement with previous work, though with a larger fraction of clusters with significant offsets. Adopting a fixed Planck-like cosmology, we measure the optical richness-SZ mass ( ) relation and find it to be 28% shallower than that from a weak-lensing analysis of the DES data-a difference significant at the 4 level-with the relations intersecting at λ = 60. The SPT-ECS cluster sample will be particularly useful for studying the evolution of massive clusters and, in combination with DES lensing observations and the SPT-SZ cluster sample, will be an important component of future cosmological analyses.
ABSTRACT The millimeter transient sky is largely unexplored, with measurements limited to follow-up of objects detected at other wavelengths. High-angular-resolution telescopes, designed for ...measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), offer the possibility to discover new, unknown transient sources in this band-particularly the afterglows of unobserved gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here, we use the 10 m millimeter-wave South Pole Telescope, designed for the primary purpose of observing the CMB at arcminute and larger angular scales, to conduct a search for such objects. During the 2012-2013 season, the telescope was used to continuously observe a 100 deg2 patch of sky centered at R.A. 23h30m and decl. −55° using the polarization-sensitive SPTpol camera in two bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. These 6000 hr of observations provided continuous monitoring for day- to month-scale millimeter-wave transient sources at the 10 mJy level. One candidate object was observed with properties broadly consistent with a GRB afterglow, but at a statistical significance too low (p = 0.01) to confirm detection.
We present a catalog of galaxy clusters selected via their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signature from 2500 deg super(2) of South Pole Telescope (SPT) data. This work represents the complete sample ...of clusters detected at high significance in the 2500 deg super(2) SPT-SZ survey, which was completed in 2011. A total of 677 (409) cluster candidates are identified above a signal-to-noise threshold of xi = 4.5 (5.0). Ground- and space-based optical and near-infrared (NIR) imaging confirms overdensities of similarly colored galaxies in the direction of 516 (or 76%) of the xi > 4.5 candidates and 387 (or 95%) of the xi > 5 candidates; the measured purity is consistent with expectations from simulations. Of these confirmed clusters, 415 were first identified in SPT data, including 251 new discoveries reported in this work. We estimate photometric redshifts for all candidates with identified optical and/or NIR counterparts; we additionally report redshifts derived from spectroscopic observations for 141 of these systems. The mass threshold of the catalog is roughly independent of redshift above z ~ 0.25 leading to a sample of massive clusters that extends to high redshift. The median mass of the sample is M sub(500c)(rho sub(crit)) ~3.5 x 10 super(14) M sub(middot in circle) h super(-1) sub(70), the median redshift is z sub(med) = 0.55, and the highest-redshift systems are at z > 1.4. The combination of large redshift extent, clean selection, and high typical mass makes this cluster sample of particular interest for cosmological analyses and studies of cluster formation and evolution.