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F. Courbin

Publications and source records attributed to F. Courbin.

At least 307 records · Page 17Linked to original sources

H0LiCOW X: Spectroscopic/imaging survey and galaxy-group identification around the strong gravitational lens system WFI2033-4723

Galaxies and galaxy groups located along the line of sight towards gravitationally lensed quasars produce high-order perturbations of the gravitational potential at the lens position. When these perturbation are too large, they can induce a systematic error on $H_0$ of a few-percent if the lens system is used for cosmological inference and the perturbers are not explicitly accounted for in the lens model. In this work, we present a detailed characterization of the environment of the lens system WFI2033-4723 ($z_{\rm src} = 1.662$, $z_{\rm lens}$ = 0.6575), one of the core targets of the H0LICOW project for which we present cosmological inferences in a companion paper (Rusu et al. 2019). We use the Gemini and ESO-Very Large telescopes to measure the spectroscopic redshifts of the brightest galaxies towards the lens, and use the ESO-MUSE integral field spectrograph to measure the velocity-dispersion of the lens ($σ_{\rm {los}}= 250^{+15}_{-21}$ km/s) and of several nearby galaxies. In addition, we measure photometric redshifts and stellar masses of all galaxies down to $i < 23$ mag, mainly based on Dark Energy Survey imaging (DR1). Our new catalog, complemented with literature data, more than doubles the number of known galaxy spectroscopic redshifts in the direct vicinity of the lens, expanding to 116 (64) the number of spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies separated by less than 3 arcmin (2 arcmin) from the lens. Using the flexion-shift as a measure of the amplitude of the gravitational perturbation, we identify 2 galaxy groups and 3 galaxies that require specific attention in the lens models. The ESO MUSE data enable us to measure the velocity-dispersions of three of these galaxies. These results are essential for the cosmological inference analysis presented in Rusu et al. (2019).

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The Hubble Constant determined through an inverse distance ladder including quasar time delays and Type Ia supernovae

Context. The precise determination of the present-day expansion rate of the Universe, expressed through the Hubble constant $H_0$, is one of the most pressing challenges in modern cosmology. Assuming flat $Λ$CDM, $H_0$ inference at high redshift using cosmic-microwave-background data from Planck disagrees at the 4.4$σ$ level with measurements based on the local distance ladder made up of parallaxes, Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), often referred to as "Hubble tension". Independent, cosmological-model-insensitive ways to infer $H_0$ are of critical importance. Aims. We apply an inverse-distance-ladder approach, combining strong-lensing time-delay-distance measurements with SN Ia data. By themselves, SNe Ia are merely good relative distance indicators, but by anchoring them to strong gravitational lenses one can obtain an $H_0$ measurement that is relatively insensitive to other cosmological parameters. Methods. A cosmological parameter estimate is performed for different cosmological background models, both for strong-lensing data alone and for the combined lensing + SNe Ia data sets. Results. The cosmological-model dependence of strong-lensing $H_0$ measurements is significantly mitigated through the inverse distance ladder. In combination with SN Ia data, the inferred $H_0$ consistently lies around 73-74 km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, regardless of the assumed cosmological background model. Our results agree nicely with those from the local distance ladder, but there is a >2$σ$ tension with Planck results, and a ~1.5$σ$ discrepancy with results from an inverse distance ladder including Planck, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and SNe Ia. Future strong-lensing distance measurements will reduce the uncertainties in $H_0$ from our inverse distance ladder.

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H0LiCOW - IX. Cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 and a new measurement of the Hubble constant

We present a blind time-delay strong lensing (TDSL) cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332. We combine the relative time delay between the quasar images, Hubble Space Telescope imaging, the Keck stellar velocity dispersion of the lensing galaxy, and wide-field photometric and spectroscopic data of the field to constrain two angular diameter distance relations. The combined analysis is performed by forward modelling the individual data sets through a Bayesian hierarchical framework, and it is kept blind until the very end to prevent experimenter bias. After unblinding, the inferred distances imply a Hubble constant $H_0 = 68.8^{+5.4}_{-5.1}$ kms$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$, assuming a flat Lambda cold dark matter cosmology with uniform prior on $Ω_{\rm m}$ in [0.05, 0.5]. The precision of our cosmographic measurement with the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 is comparable with those of quadruply imaged quasars and opens the path to perform on selected doubles the same analysis as anticipated for quads. Our analysis is based on a completely independent lensing code than our previous three H0LiCOW systems and the new measurement is fully consistent with those. We provide the analysis scripts paired with the publicly available software to facilitate independent analysis. The consistency between blind measurements with independent codes provides an important sanity check on lens modelling systematics. By combining the likelihoods of the four systems under the same prior, we obtain $H_0 = 72.5^{+2.1}_{-2.3}$kms$^{-1}$Mpc$^{-1}$. This measurement is independent of the distance ladder and other cosmological probes.

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COSMOGRAIL XVIII: time delays of the quadruply lensed quasar WFI2033-4723

We present new measurements of the time delays of WFI2033-4723. The data sets used in this work include 14 years of data taken at the 1.2m Leonhard Euler Swiss telescope, 13 years of data from the SMARTS 1.3m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and a single year of high-cadence and high-precision monitoring at the MPIA 2.2m telescope. The time delays measured from these different data sets, all taken in the R-band, are in good agreement with each other and with previous measurements from the literature. Combining all the time-delay estimates from our data sets results in Dt_AB = 36.2-0.8+0.7 days (2.1% precision), Dt_AC = -23.3-1.4+1.2 days (5.6%) and Dt_BC = -59.4-1.3+1.3 days (2.2%). In addition, the close image pair A1-A2 of the lensed quasars can be resolved in the MPIA 2.2m data. We measure a time delay consistent with zero in this pair of images. We also explore the prior distributions of microlensing time-delay potentially affecting the cosmological time-delay measurements of WFI2033-4723. There is however no strong indication in our measurements that microlensing time delay is neither present nor absent. This work is part of a H0LiCOW series focusing on measuring the Hubble constant from WFI2033-4723.

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4MOST: Project overview and information for the First Call for Proposals

We introduce the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), a new high-multiplex, wide-field spectroscopic survey facility under development for the four-metre-class Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal. Its key specifications are: a large field of view (FoV) of 4.2 square degrees and a high multiplex capability, with 1624 fibres feeding two low-resolution spectrographs ($R = λ/Δλ\sim 6500$), and 812 fibres transferring light to the high-resolution spectrograph ($R \sim 20\,000$). After a description of the instrument and its expected performance, a short overview is given of its operational scheme and planned 4MOST Consortium science; these aspects are covered in more detail in other articles in this edition of The Messenger. Finally, the processes, schedules, and policies concerning the selection of ESO Community Surveys are presented, commencing with a singular opportunity to submit Letters of Intent for Public Surveys during the first five years of 4MOST operations.

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The Strong Gravitational Lens Finding Challenge

Large scale imaging surveys will increase the number of galaxy-scale strong lensing candidates by maybe three orders of magnitudes beyond the number known today. Finding these rare objects will require picking them out of at least tens of millions of images and deriving scientific results from them will require quantifying the efficiency and bias of any search method. To achieve these objectives automated methods must be developed. Because gravitational lenses are rare objects reducing false positives will be particularly important. We present a description and results of an open gravitational lens finding challenge. Participants were asked to classify 100,000 candidate objects as to whether they were gravitational lenses or not with the goal of developing better automated methods for finding lenses in large data sets. A variety of methods were used including visual inspection, arc and ring finders, support vector machines (SVM) and convolutional neural networks (CNN). We find that many of the methods will be easily fast enough to analyse the anticipated data flow. In test data, several methods are able to identify upwards of half the lenses after applying some thresholds on the lens characteristics such as lensed image brightness, size or contrast with the lens galaxy without making a single false-positive identification. This is significantly better than direct inspection by humans was able to do. (abridged)

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Impact of the 3D source geometry on time-delay measurements of lensed type-Ia Supernovae

It has recently been proposed that gravitationally lensed type-Ia supernovae can provide microlensing-free time-delay measurements provided that the measurement is taken during the achromatic expansion phase of the explosion and that color light curves are used rather than single-band light curves. If verified, this would provide both precise and accurate time-delay measurements, making lensed type-Ia supernovae a new golden standard for time-delay cosmography. However, the 3D geometry of the expanding shell can introduce an additional bias that has not yet been fully explored. In this work, we present and discuss the impact of this effect on time-delay cosmography with lensed supernovae and find that on average it leads to a bias of a few tenths of a day for individual lensed systems. This is negligible in view of the cosmological time delays predicted for typical lensed type-Ia supernovae but not for the specific case of the recently discovered type-Ia supernova iPTF16geu, whose time delays are expected to be smaller than a day.

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Sparse Lens Inversion Technique (SLIT): lens and source separability from linear inversion of the source reconstruction problem

Strong gravitational lensing offers a wealth of astrophysical information on the background source it affects, provided the lensed source can be reconstructed as if it was seen in the absence of lensing. In the present work, we illustrate how sparse optimisation can address the problem. As a first step towards a full free-form lens modelling technique, we consider linear inversion of the lensed source under sparse regularisation and joint deblending from the lens light profile. The method is based on morphological component analysis, assuming a known mass model. We show with numerical experiments that representing the lens and source light using an undecimated wavelet basis allows us to reconstruct the source and to separate it from the foreground lens at the same time. Both the source and lens light have a non-analytic form, allowing for the flexibility needed in the inversion to represent arbitrarily small and complex luminous structures in the lens and source. in addition, sparse regularisation avoids over-fitting the data and does not require the use of any adaptive mesh or pixel grid. As a consequence, our reconstructed sources can be represented on a grid of very small pixels. Sparse regularisation in the wavelet domain also allows for automated computation of the regularisation parameter, thus minimising the impact of arbitrary choice of initial parameters. Our inversion technique for a fixed mass distribution can be incorporated in future lens modelling technique iterating over the lens mass parameters. The python package corresponding to the algorithms described in this article can be downloaded via the github platform at https://github.com/herjy/SLIT.

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The STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) 2016 follow-up campaign. I. Overview and classification of candidates selected by two techniques

The primary goals of the STRong lensing Insights into the Dark Energy Survey (STRIDES) collaboration are to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter and the free streaming length of dark matter. To this aim, STRIDES is discovering strongly lensed quasars in the imaging data of the Dark Energy Survey and following them up to measure time delays, high resolution imaging, and spectroscopy sufficient to construct accurate lens models. In this paper, we first present forecasts for STRIDES. Then, we describe the STRIDES classification scheme, and give an overview of the Fall 2016 follow-up campaign. We continue by detailing the results of two selection methods, the Outlier Selection Technique and a morphological algorithm, and presenting lens models of a system, which could possibly be a lensed quasar in an unusual configuration. We conclude with the summary statistics of the Fall 2016 campaign. Including searches presented in companion papers (Anguita et al.; Ostrovski et al.), STRIDES followed up 117 targets identifying 7 new strongly lensed systems, and 7 nearly identical quasars (NIQs), which could be confirmed as lenses by the detection of the lens galaxy. 76 candidates were rejected and 27 remain otherwise inconclusive, for a success rate in the range 6-35\%. This rate is comparable to that of previous searches like SQLS even though the parent dataset of STRIDES is purely photometric and our selection of candidates cannot rely on spectroscopic information.

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Dissecting cold gas in a high-redshift galaxy using a lensed background quasar

We present a study of cold gas absorption from a damped Lyman-$α$ absorber (DLA) at redshift $z_{\rm abs}=1.946$ towards two lensed images of the quasar J144254.78+405535.5 at redshift $z_{\rm QSO} = 2.590$. The physical separation of the two lines of sight at the absorber redshift is $d_{\rm abs}=0.7$~kpc based on our lens model. We observe absorption lines from neutral carbon and H$_2$ along both lines of sight indicating that cold gas is present on scales larger than $d_{\rm abs}$. We measure column densities of HI to be $\log N(\rm H\,ı) = 20.27\pm0.02$ and $20.34\pm0.05$ and of H$_2$ to be $\log N(\rm H_2) = 19.7\pm0.1$ and $19.9\pm0.2$. The metallicity inferred from sulphur is consistent with Solar metallicity for both sightlines: $[{\rm S/H}]_A = 0.0\pm0.1$ and $[{\rm S/H}]_B = -0.1\pm0.1$. Based on the excitation of low rotational levels of H$_2$, we constrain the temperature of the cold gas phase to be $T=109\pm20$ and $T=89\pm25$ K for the two lines of sight. From the relative excitation of fine-structure levels of CI, we constrain the hydrogen volumetric densities in the range of $40-110$ cm$^{-3}$. Based on the ratio of observed column density and volumetric density, we infer the average individual `cloud' size along the line of sight to be $l\approx0.1$ pc. Using the transverse line-of-sight separation of 0.7 kpc together with the individual cloud size, we are able to put an upper limit to the volume filling factor of cold gas of $f_{\rm vol} < 0.2$ %. Nonetheless, the projected covering fraction of cold gas must be large (close to unity) over scales of a few kpc in order to explain the presence of cold gas in both lines of sight. Compared to the typical extent of DLAs (~10-30 kpc), this is consistent with the relative incidence rate of CI absorbers and DLAs.

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COSMOGRAIL XVII: Time delays for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080

We present time-delay estimates for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080. Our resuls are based on almost daily observations for seven months at the ESO MPIA 2.2m telescope at La Silla Observatory, reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1000 per quasar image. In addition, we re-analyse existing light curves from the literature that we complete with an additional three seasons of monitoring with the Mercator telescope at La Palma Observatory. When exploring the possible source of bias we consider the so-called microlensing time delay, a potential source of systematic error so far never directly accounted for in previous time-delay publications. In fifteen years of data on PG 1115+080, we find no strong evidence of microlensing time delay. Therefore not accounting for this effect, our time-delay estimates on the individual data sets are in good agreement with each other and with the literature. Combining the data sets, we obtain the most precise time-delay estimates to date on PG 1115+080, with Dt(AB) = 8.3+1.5-1.6 days (18.7% precision), Dt(AC) = 9.9+1.1-1.1 days (11.1%) and Dt(BC) = 18.8+1.6-1.6 days (8.5%). Turning these time delays into cosmological constraints is done in a companion paper that makes use of ground-based Adaptive Optics (AO) with the Keck telescope.

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ALMA view of RX J1131-1231: Sub-kpc CO (2-1) mapping of a molecular disk in a lensed star-forming quasar host galaxy

We present ALMA 2-mm continuum and CO (2-1) spectral line imaging of the gravitationally lensed z=0.654 star-forming/quasar composite RX J1131-1231 at 240-400 mas angular resolution. The continuum emission is found to be compact and coincident with the optical emission, whereas the molecular gas forms a complete Einstein ring, which shows strong differential magnification. The de-lensed source structure is determined on 400-pc resolution using a visibility-fitting lens modelling technique. The reconstructed molecular gas velocity-field is consistent with a rotating disk with a maximum rotational velocity of 280 km/s. From dynamical model fitting we find an enclosed mass M(r<5 kpc)=(1.46+/-0.31)*10^11 M_sol. The molecular gas distribution is highly structured, with clumps that are co-incident with higher gas velocity dispersion regions 40-50 km/s and with the intensity peaks in the optical emission, which are associated with sites of on-going turbulent star-formation. The peak in the CO (2-1) distribution is not co-incident with the AGN, where there is a paucity of molecular gas emission, possibly due to radiative feedback from the central engine. The intrinsic molecular gas luminosity is L'_CO=(1.2+/-0.3)*10^10 K km/s pc^2 and the inferred gas mass is M(H2)=(8.3+/-3.0)*10^10 M_sol, which given its dynamical mass is consistent with a CO-H2 conversion factor of alpha = 5.5+/-2.0 M_solar(K km/s pc^2)^-1. This suggests that the star-formation efficiency is dependent on the host galaxy morphology as opposed to the nature of the AGN. The far-infrared continuum spectral energy distribution shows evidence for heated dust, equivalent to an obscured star-formation rate of SFR=69^(+41)_(-25)*(7.3/u_IR)M_sol/yr, which demonstrates the composite star-forming/AGN nature of this system. RX J1131-1231

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H0LiCOW VIII. A weak lensing measurement of the external convergence in the field of the lensed quasar HE$\,$0435$-$1223

We present a weak gravitational lensing measurement of the external convergence along the line of sight to the quadruply lensed quasar HE$\,$0435$-$1223. Using deep r-band images from Subaru-Suprime-Cam we observe galaxies down to a 3$σ$ limiting magnitude of $\sim 26$ mags resulting in a source galaxy density of 14 galaxies / arcmin$^2$ after redshift-based cuts. Using an inpainting technique and Multi-Scale Entropy filtering algorithm, we find that the region in close proximity to the lens has an estimated external convergence of $κ=-0.012^{+0.020}_{-0.013}$ and is hence marginally under-dense. We also rule out the presence of any halo with a mass greater than $M_{\rm vir}=1.6\times10^{14}h^{-1}M_\odot$ (68$\%$ confidence limit). Our results, consistent with previous studies of this lens, confirm that the intervening mass along the line of sight to HE$\,$0435$-$1223 does not affect significantly the cosmological results inferred from the time delay measurements of that specific object.

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DES meets Gaia: discovery of strongly lensed quasars from a multiplet search

We report the discovery, spectroscopic confirmation and first lens models of the first two, strongly lensed quasars from a combined search in WISE and Gaia over the DES footprint. The four-image lensWGD2038-4008 (r.a.=20:38:02.65, dec.=-40:08:14.64) has source- and lens-redshifts $z_{s}=0.777 \pm 0.001$ and $z_l = 0.230 \pm 0.002$ respectively. Its deflector has effective radius $R_{\rm eff} \approx 3.4^{\prime\prime}$, stellar mass $\log(M_{\star}/M_{\odot}) = 11.64^{+0.20}_{-0.43}$, and shows extended isophotal shape variation. Simple lens models yield Einstein radii $R_{\rm E}=(1.30\pm0.04)^{\prime\prime},$ axis ratio $q=0.75\pm0.1$ (compatible with that of the starlight) and considerable shear-ellipticity degeneracies. The two-image lensWGD2021-4115 (r.a.=20:21:39.45, dec.=--41:15:57.11) has $z_{s}=1.390\pm0.001$ and $z_l = 0.335 \pm 0.002$, and Einstein radius $R_{\rm E} = (1.1\pm0.1)^{\prime\prime},$ but higher-resolution imaging is needed to accurately separate the deflector and faint quasar image. We also show high-rank candidate doubles selected this way, some of which have been independently identified with different techniques, and discuss a DES+WISE quasar multiplet selection.

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COSMOGRAIL XVI: Time delays for the quadruply imaged quasar DES J0408-5354 with high-cadence photometric monitoring

We present time-delay measurements for the new quadruply imaged quasar DES J0408-5354, the first quadruply imaged quasar found in the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Our result is made possible by implementing a new observational strategy using almost daily observations with the MPIA 2.2m telescope at La Silla observatory and deep exposures reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1000 per quasar image. This data quality allows us to catch small photometric variations (a few mmag rms) of the quasar, acting on temporal scales much shorter than microlensing, hence making the time delay measurement very robust against microlensing. In only 7 months we measure very accurately one of the time delays in DES J0408-5354: Dt(AB) = -112.1 +- 2.1 days (1.8%) using only the MPIA 2.2m data. In combination with data taken with the 1.2m Euler Swiss telescope, we also measure two delays involving the D component of the system Dt(AD) = -155.5 +- 12.8 days (8.2%) and Dt(BD) = -42.4 +- 17.6 days (41%), where all the error bars include systematics. Turning these time delays into cosmological constraints will require deep HST imaging or ground-based Adaptive Optics (AO), and information on the velocity field of the lensing galaxy.

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Detecting unresolved binary stars in Euclid VIS images

Measuring a weak gravitational lensing signal to the level required by the next generation of space-based surveys demands exquisite reconstruction of the point-spread function (PSF). However, unresolved binary stars can significantly distort the PSF shape. In an effort to mitigate this bias, we aim at detecting unresolved binaries in realistic Euclid stellar populations. We tested methods in numerical experiments where (i) the PSF shape is known to Euclid requirements across the field of view, and (ii) the PSF shape is unknown. We drew simulated catalogues of PSF shapes for this proof-of-concept paper. Following the Euclid survey plan, the objects were observed four times. We propose three methods to detect unresolved binary stars. The detection is based on the systematic and correlated biases between exposures of the same object. One method is a simple correlation analysis, while the two others use supervised machine-learning algorithms (random forest and artificial neural network). In both experiments, we demonstrate the ability of our methods to detect unresolved binary stars in simulated catalogues. The performance depends on the level of prior knowledge of the PSF shape and the shape measurement errors. Good detection performances are observed in both experiments. Full complexity, in terms of the images and the survey design, is not included, but key aspects of a more mature pipeline are discussed. Finding unresolved binaries in objects used for PSF reconstruction increases the quality of the PSF determination at arbitrary positions. We show, using different approaches, that we are able to detect at least binary stars that are most damaging for the PSF reconstruction process.

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A detection of wobbling Brightest Cluster Galaxies within massive galaxy clusters

A striking signal of dark matter beyond the standard model is the existence of cores in the centre of galaxy clusters. Recent simulations predict that a Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG) inside a cored galaxy cluster will exhibit residual wobbling due to previous major mergers, long after the relaxation of the overall cluster. This phenomenon is absent with standard cold dark matter where a cuspy density profile keeps a BCG tightly bound at the centre. We test this hypothesis using cosmological simulations and deep observations of 10 galaxy clusters acting as strong gravitational lenses. Modelling the BCG wobble as a simple harmonic oscillator, we measure the wobble amplitude, $A_w$, in the BAHAMAS suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations, finding an upper limit for the CDM paradigm of $A_w < 2$kpc at the 95% confidence limit. We carry out the same test on the data finding a non-zero amplitude of $A_w=11.82^{+7.3}_{-3.0}$kpc, with the observations dis-favouring $A_w = 0$ at the 3$σ$ confidence level. This detection of BCG wobbling is evidence for a dark matter core at the heart of galaxy clusters. It also shows that strong lensing models of clusters cannot assume that the BCG is exactly coincident with the large scale halo. While our small sample of galaxy clusters already indicates a non-zero $A_w$, with larger surveys, e.g. Euclid, we will be able to not only to confirm the effect but also to use it to determine whether or not the wobbling finds its origin in new fundamental physics or astrophysical process.

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MUSE-inspired view of the quasar Q2059-360, its Lyman alpha blob, and its neighborhood

The radio-quiet quasar Q2059-360 at redshift $z=3.08$ is known to be close to a small Lyman $α$ blob (LAB) and to be absorbed by a proximate damped Ly$α$ (PDLA) system. Here, we present the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) integral field spectroscopy follow-up of this quasi-stellar object (QSO). Our primary goal is to characterize this LAB in detail by mapping it both spatially and spectrally using the Ly$α$ line, and by looking for high-ionization lines to constrain the emission mechanism. Combining the high sensitivity of the MUSE integral field spectrograph mounted on the Yepun telescope at ESO-VLT with the natural coronagraph provided by the PDLA, we map the LAB down to the QSO position, after robust subtraction of QSO light in the spectral domain. In addition to confirming earlier results for the small bright component of the LAB, we unveil a faint filamentary emission protruding to the south over about 80 pkpc (physical kpc); this results in a total size of about 120 pkpc. We derive the velocity field of the LAB (assuming no transfer effects) and map the Ly$α$ line width. Upper limits are set to the flux of the N V $λ1238-1242$, C IV $λ1548-1551$, He II $λ1640$, and C III] $λ1548-1551$ lines. We have discovered two probable Ly$α$ emitters at the same redshift as the LAB and at projected distances of 265 kpc and 207 kpc from the QSO; their Ly$α$ luminosities might well be enhanced by the QSO radiation. We also find an emission line galaxy at $z=0.33$ near the line of sight to the QSO. This LAB shares the same general characteristics as the 17 others surrounding radio-quiet QSOs presented previously. However, there are indications that it may be centered on the PDLA galaxy rather than on the QSO.

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