Abstract
We present an HST/Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) weak gravitational lensing analysis of 13 massive high-redshift (zmedian = 0.88) galaxy clusters discovered in the South Pole Telescope ...(SPT) Sunyaev–Zel'dovich Survey. This study is part of a larger campaign that aims to robustly calibrate mass–observable scaling relations over a wide range in redshift to enable improved cosmological constraints from the SPT cluster sample. We introduce new strategies to ensure that systematics in the lensing analysis do not degrade constraints on cluster scaling relations significantly. First, we efficiently remove cluster members from the source sample by selecting very blue galaxies in V − I colour. Our estimate of the source redshift distribution is based on Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) data, where we carefully mimic the source selection criteria of the cluster fields. We apply a statistical correction for systematic photometric redshift errors as derived from Hubble Ultra Deep Field data and verified through spatial cross-correlations. We account for the impact of lensing magnification on the source redshift distribution, finding that this is particularly relevant for shallower surveys. Finally, we account for biases in the mass modelling caused by miscentring and uncertainties in the concentration–mass relation using simulations. In combination with temperature estimates from Chandra
we constrain the normalization of the mass–temperature scaling relation ln (E(z)M500c/1014 M⊙) = A + 1.5ln (kT/7.2 keV) to $A=1.81^{+0.24}_{-0.14}(\mathrm{stat.})\,{\pm }\,0.09(\mathrm{sys.})$, consistent with self-similar redshift evolution when compared to lower redshift samples. Additionally, the lensing data constrain the average concentration of the clusters to $c_\mathrm{200c}=5.6^{+3.7}_{-1.8}$.
The High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) experiment has observed the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin suppression (called the GZK cutoff) with a statistical significance of five standard deviations. HiRes' ...measurement of the flux of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays shows a sharp suppression at an energy of 6 x 10(19) eV, consistent with the expected cutoff energy. We observe the ankle of the cosmic-ray energy spectrum as well, at an energy of 4 x 10(18) eV. We describe the experiment, data collection, and analysis and estimate the systematic uncertainties. The results are presented and the calculation of the statistical significance of our observation is described.
We report studies of ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray composition via analysis of depth of air shower maximum (X(max)), for air shower events collected by the High-Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) ...observatory. The HiRes data are consistent with a constant elongation rate d<X(max)>/dlog(E) of 47.9+/-6.0(stat)+/-3.2(syst) g/cm2/decade for energies between 1.6 and 63 EeV, and are consistent with a predominantly protonic composition of cosmic rays when interpreted via the QGSJET01 and QGSJET-II high-energy hadronic interaction models. These measurements constrain models in which the galactic-to-extragalactic transition is the cause of the energy spectrum ankle at 4x10(18) eV.
The Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) is a 60 night imaging survey of ~80 deg super(2) of the southern sky located in two fields: (alpha, delta) = (5 hr, -55degrees) and (23 hr, -55degrees). The survey ...was carried out between 2005 and 2008 in griz bands with the Mosaic2 imager on the Blanco 4 m telescope. The primary aim of the BCS survey is to provide the data required to optically confirm and measure photometric redshifts for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect selected galaxy clusters from the South Pole Telescope and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. We process and calibrate the BCS data, carrying out point-spread function-corrected model-fitting photometry for all detected objects. The median 10sigma galaxy (point-source) depths over the survey in griz are approximately 23.3 (23.9), 23.4 (24.0), 23.0 (23.6), and 21.3 (22.1), respectively. The astrometric accuracy relative to the USNO-B survey is ~45 mas. We calibrate our absolute photometry using the stellar locus in grizJ bands, and thus our absolute photometric scale derives from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which has ~2% accuracy. The scatter of stars about the stellar locus indicates a systematic floor in the relative stellar photometric scatter in griz that is ~1.9%, ~2.2%, ~2.7%, and ~2.7%, respectively. A simple cut in the AstrOmatic star-galaxy classifier spread_model produces a star sample with good spatial uniformity. We use the resulting photometric catalogs to calibrate photometric redshifts for the survey and demonstrate scatter deltaz/(1 + z) = 0.054 with an outlier fraction eta < 5% to z ~ 1. We highlight some selected science results to date and provide a full description of the released data products.
Purpose:
The authors present a calibration method for a prototype proton computed tomography (pCT) scanner. The accuracy of these measurements depends upon careful calibration of the energy detector ...used to measure the residual energy of the protons that passed through the object.
Methods:
A prototype pCT scanner with a cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) crystal calorimeter was calibrated by measuring the calorimeter response for protons of 200 and 100 MeV initial energies undergoing degradation in polystyrene plates of known thickness and relative stopping power (RSP) with respect to water. Calibration curves for the two proton energies were obtained by fitting a second-degree polynomial to the water-equivalent path length versus calorimeter response data. Using the 100 MeV calibration curve, the RSP values for a variety of tissue-equivalent materials were measured and compared to values obtained from a standard depth-dose range shift measurement using a water-tank. A cylindrical water phantom was scanned with 200 MeV protons and its RSP distribution was reconstructed using the 200 MeV calibration.
Results:
It is shown that this calibration method produces measured RSP values of various tissue-equivalent materials that agree to within 0.5% of values obtained using an established water-tank method. The mean RSP value of the water phantom reconstruction was found to be 0.995 ± 0.006.
Conclusions:
The method presented provides a simple and reliable procedure for calibration of a pCT scanner.
We present a detection-significance-limited catalog of 21 Sunyaev-Zel'dovich-selected galaxy clusters. These clusters, along with one unconfirmed candidate, were identified in 178 deg2 of sky ...surveyed in 2008 by the South Pole Telescope (SPT) to a depth of 18 Delta *mK arcmin at 150 GHz. Optical imaging from the Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) and Magellan telescopes provided photometric (and in some cases spectroscopic) redshift estimates, with catalog redshifts ranging from z = 0.15 to z>1, with a median z = 0.74. Of the 21 confirmed galaxy clusters, 3 were previously identified as Abell clusters, 3 were presented as SPT discoveries in Staniszewski et al., and 3 were first identified in a recent analysis of BCS data by Menanteau et al.; the remaining 12 clusters are presented for the first time in this work. Simulated observations of the SPT fields predict the sample to be nearly 100% complete above a mass threshold of M 200 5 X 1014 M h --1 at z = 0.6. This completeness threshold pushes to lower mass with increasing redshift, dropping to ~4 X 1014 M h --1 at z = 1. The size and redshift distribution of this catalog are in good agreement with expectations based on our current understanding of galaxy clusters and cosmology. In combination with other cosmological probes, we use this cluster catalog to improve estimates of cosmological parameters. Assuming a standard spatially flat wCDM cosmological model, the addition of our catalog to the WMAP seven-year results yields Delta *s8 = 0.81 ? 0.09 and w = --1.07 ? 0.29, a ~50% improvement in precision on both parameters over WMAP7 alone.
Finding a sample of the most massive clusters with redshifts z > 0.6 can provide an interesting consistency check of the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. Here, we present results from our search for ...clusters with 0.6 ≲ z ≲ 1.0 where the initial candidates were selected by cross-correlating the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) faint and bright source catalogues with red galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR8. Our survey thus covers ≈ 10 000 deg2, much larger than previous studies of this kind. Deeper follow-up observations in three bands using the William Herschel Telescope and the Large Binocular Telescope were performed to confirm the candidates, resulting in a sample of 44 clusters for which we present richnesses and red sequence redshifts, as well as spectroscopic redshifts for a subset. At least two of the clusters in our sample are comparable in richness to RCS2-J232727.7−020437, one of the richest systems discovered to date. We also obtained new observations with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy for a subsample of 21 clusters. For 11 of those we detect the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich effect signature. The Sunyaev–Zel'dovich signal allows us to estimate M
200 and check for tension with the cosmological standard model. We find no tension between our cluster masses and the ΛCDM model.
We present results of X-ray observations of a sample of 15 clusters selected via their imprint on the cosmic microwave background from the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect. These clusters are a ...subset of the first SZ-selected cluster catalog, obtained from observations of 178 deg2 of sky surveyed by the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Using X-ray observations with Chandra and XMM-Newton, we estimate the temperature, TX , and mass, Mg , of the intracluster medium within r 500 for each cluster. From these, we calculate YX = MgTX and estimate the total cluster mass using an M 500-YX scaling relation measured from previous X-ray studies. The integrated Comptonization, Y SZ, is derived from the SZ measurements, using additional information from the X-ray-measured gas density profiles and a universal temperature profile. We calculate scaling relations between the X-ray and SZ observables and find results generally consistent with other measurements and the expectations from simple self-similar behavior. Specifically, we fit a Y SZ-YX relation and find a normalization of 0.82 ? 0.07, marginally consistent with the predicted ratio of Y SZ/YX = 0.91 ? 0.01 that would be expected from the density and temperature models used in this work. Using the YX -derived mass estimates, we fit a Y SZ-M 500 relation and find a slope consistent with the self-similar expectation of Y SZM 5/3 with a normalization consistent with predictions from other X-ray studies. We find that the SZ mass estimates, derived from cosmological simulations of the SPT survey, are lower by a factor of 0.78 ? 0.06 relative to the X-ray mass estimates. This offset is at a level of 1.3 Delta *s when considering the ~15% systematic uncertainty for the simulation-based SZ masses. Overall, the X-ray measurements confirm that the scaling relations of the SZ-selected clusters are consistent with the properties of other X-ray-selected samples of massive clusters, even allowing for the broad redshift range (0.29 < z < 1.08) of the sample.
The Blanco Cosmology Survey is a four-band (griz) optical-imaging survey of ~80 deg super(2) of the southern sky. The survey consists of two fields centered approximately at (R.A., decl.) = (23 ...super(h), -55degrees) and (5 super(h)30 super(m), -53degrees) with imaging sufficient for the detection of Llow *galaxies at redshift z < or =, slant 1. In this paper, we present our reduction of the survey data and describe a new technique for the separation of stars and galaxies. We search the calibrated source catalogs for galaxy clusters at z < or =, slant 0.75 by identifying spatial over-densities of red-sequence galaxies and report the coordinates, redshifts, and optical richnesses, lambda, for 764 galaxy clusters at z < or =, slant 0.75. This sample, >85% of which are new discoveries, has a median redshift of z = 0.52 and median richness lambda(0.4 Llow *) = 16.4. Accompanying this paper we also release full survey data products including reduced images and calibrated source catalogs. These products are available at http://data.rcc.uchicago.edu/dataset/blanco-cosmology-survey.
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