arXiv subjects

D. Wittman

Publications and source records attributed to D. Wittman.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Weak Lensing Discovery and Tomography of a Cluster at z=0.68

We report the weak lensing discovery, spectroscopic confirmation, and weak lensing tomography of a massive cluster of galaxies at $z=0.68$, demonstrating that shear selection of clusters works at redshifts high enough to be cosmologically interesting. The mass estimate from weak lensing, $11.1 +- 2.8 x 10^{14} (r/Mpc)$ solar masses within projected radius r, agrees with that derived from the spectroscopy ($σ_v = 980 km s^{-1}$), and with the position of an arc which is likely to be a strongly lensed background galaxy. The redshift estimate from weak lensing tomography is consistent with the spectroscopy, demonstrating the feasibility of baryon-unbiased mass surveys. This tomographic technique will be able to roughly identify the redshifts of any dark clusters which may appear in shear-selected samples, up to z ~ 1.

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arXiv2002

Weak Lensing Results from the 75 Square Degree CTIO Survey

We measure seeing-corrected ellipticities for 2 x 10^6 galaxies with magnitude R<23 in 12 widely separated fields totalling 75 deg^2 of sky. At angular scales >30\arcmin, ellipticity correlations are detected at high significance and exhibit nearly the pure "E-mode" behavior expected of weak gravitational lensing. Even when smoothed to the full field size of 2.5 degrees, which is ~25h^-1 Mpc at the lens distances, an rms shear variance of <γ^2>^1/2 = 0.0012 +- 0.0003 is detected. At smaller angular scales there is significant "B-mode" power, an indication of residual uncorrected PSF distortions. The >30\arcmin data constrain the power spectrum of matter fluctuations on comoving scales of ~10h^-1 Mpc to have σ_8 (Ω_m/0.3)^{0.57} = 0.71^{+0.12}_{-0.16} (95% CL, \LambdaCDM, Γ=0.21), where the systematic error includes statistical and calibration uncertainties, cosmic variance, and a conservative estimate of systematic contamination based upon the detected B-mode signal. This normalization of the power spectrum is lower than previous weak-lensing results but generally consistent them, is at the lower end of the σ_8 range from various analyses of galaxy cluster abundances, and agrees with recent determinations from CMB and galaxy clustering. The large and dispersed sky coverage of our survey reduces random errors and cosmic variance, while the relatively shallow depth allows us to use existing redshift-survey data to reduce systematic uncertainties in the N(z) distribution to insignificance. Reanalysis of the data with more sophisticated algorithms will hopefully reduce the systematic (B-mode) contamination, and allow more precise, multidimensional constraint of cosmological parameters.

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arXiv2002

The Deep Lens Survey

The Deep Lens Survey (DLS) is a deep BVRz' imaging survey of seven 2x2 degree fields, with all data to be made public. The primary scientific driver is weak gravitational lensing, but the survey is also designed to enable a wide array of other astrophysical investigations. A unique feature of this survey is the search for transient phenomena. We subtract multiple exposures of a field, detect differences, classify, and release transients on the Web within about an hour of observation. Here we summarize the scientific goals of the DLS, field and filter selection, observing techniques and current status, data reduction, data products and release, and transient detections. Finally, we discuss some lessons which might apply to future large surveys such as LSST.

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arXiv2002

Weak Lensing

Weak lensing review at the first-year graduate student level.

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arXiv2001

Discovery of a Galaxy Cluster via Weak Lensing

We report the discovery of a cluster of galaxies via its weak gravitational lensing effect on background galaxies, the first spectroscopically confirmed cluster to be discovered through its gravitational effects rather than by its electromagnetic radiation. This fundamentally different selection mechanism promises to yield mass-selected, rather than baryon or photon-selected, samples of these important cosmological probes. We have confirmed this cluster with spectroscopic redshifts of fifteen members at z=0.276, with a velocity dispersion of 615 km/s. We use the tangential shear as a function of source photometric redshift to estimate the lens redshift independently and find z_l = 0.30 +- 0.08. The good agreement with the spectroscopy indicates that the redshift evolution of the mass function may be measurable from the imaging data alone in shear-selected surveys.

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arXiv1995

The Luminosity Function of the Coma Cluster Core for -25<M_R<-11

We determine the luminosity function (LF) of galaxies in the core of the Coma cluster for M_R<=-11.4 (assuming H_0=75 km/s/Mpc), a magnitude regime previously explored only in the Local Group. Objects are counted in a deep CCD image of Coma having RMS noise of 27.7 R mag~arcsec$^{-2}$. A correction for objects in the foreground or background of the Coma cluster---and the uncertainty in this correction---are determined from images of five other high-latitude fields, carefully matched to the Coma image in both resolution and noise level. Accurate counts of Coma cluster members are obtained as faint as R=25.5, or M_R=-9.4. The LF for galaxies is well fit by a power law dN/dL\propto L^α, with α=-1.42\pm0.05, over the range -19.4<M_R<-11.4; faintward of this range, the galaxies are unresolved and indistinguishable from globular clusters, but the data are consistent with an extrapolation of the power law. Surface brightness biases are minimized since galaxies are not subjected to morphological selection, and the limiting detection isophote is 27.6 R mag~arcsec$^{-2}$. We find the typical $M_R\approx-12$ Coma cluster galaxy to have an exponential scale length $\approx200$~pc, similar to Local Group galaxies of comparable magnitude. These extreme dwarf galaxies show a surface density increasing towards the giant elliptical NGC~4874 as $r^{-1.3}$, similar to the diffuse light and globular cluster distributions. The luminosity in the detected dwarf galaxies is at most a few percent of the total diffuse light of the giant galaxies in the cluster, and the contribution of the dwarfs to the mass of the cluster is likely negligible as well.

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