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G. Luppino

Publications and source records attributed to G. Luppino.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Early Release Science: Emission-Line Galaxies from Infrared Grism Observations

We present grism spectra of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from 0.6-1.6 microns from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. These new infrared grism data augment previous optical Advanced Camera for Surveys G800L 0.6-0.95 micron grism data in GOODS-South from the PEARS program, extending the wavelength covereage well past the G800L red cutoff. The ERS grism field was observed at a depth of 2 orbits per grism, yielding spectra of hundreds of faint objects, a subset of which are presented here. ELGs are studied via the Ha, [OIII], and [OII] emission lines detected in the redshift ranges 0.2 2.

astro-ph.CO

GALEX and Pan-STARRS1 Discovery of SN IIP 2010aq: The First Few Days After Shock Breakout in a Red Supergiant Star

We present the early UV and optical light curve of Type IIP supernova (SN) 2010aq at z=0.0862, and compare it to analytical models for thermal emission following SN shock breakout in a red supergiant star. SN 2010aq was discovered in joint monitoring between the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Time Domain Survey (TDS) in the NUV and the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey (PS1 MDS) in the g, r, i, and z bands. The GALEX and Pan-STARRS1 observations detect the SN less than 1 day after shock breakout, measure a diluted blackbody temperature of 31,000 +/- 6,000 K 1 day later, and follow the rise in the UV/optical light curve over the next 2 days caused by the expansion and cooling of the SN ejecta. The high signal-to-noise ratio of the simultaneous UV and optical photometry allows us to fit for a progenitor star radius of 700 +/- 200 R_sun, the size of a red supergiant star. An excess in UV emission two weeks after shock breakout compared to SNe well fitted by model atmosphere-code synthetic spectra with solar metallicity, is best explained by suppressed line blanketing due to a lower metallicity progenitor star in SN 2010aq. Continued monitoring of PS1 MDS fields by the GALEX TDS will increase the sample of early UV detections of Type II SNe by an order of magnitude, and probe the diversity of SN progenitor star properties.

astro-ph.CO

SN 2009kf : a UV bright type IIP supernova discovered with Pan-STARRS 1 and GALEX

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of a luminous type IIP Supernova 2009kf discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) survey and detected also by GALEX. The SN shows a plateau in its optical and bolometric light curves, lasting approximately 70 days in the rest frame, with absolute magnitude of M_V = -18.4 mag. The P-Cygni profiles of hydrogen indicate expansion velocities of 9000km/s at 61 days after discovery which is extremely high for a type IIP SN. SN 2009kf is also remarkably bright in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) and shows a slow evolution 10-20 days after optical discovery. The NUV and optical luminosity at these epochs can be modelled with a black-body with a hot effective temperature (T ~16,000 K) and a large radius (R ~1x10^{15} cm). The bright bolometric and NUV luminosity, the lightcurve peak and plateau duration, the high velocities and temperatures suggest that 2009kf is a type IIP SN powered by a larger than normal explosion energy. Recently discovered high-z SNe (0.7 < z < 2.3) have been assumed to be IIn SNe, with the bright UV luminosities due to the interaction of SN ejecta with a dense circumstellar medium (CSM). UV bright SNe similar to SN 2009kf could also account for these high-z events, and its absolute magnitude M_NUV = -21.5 +/- 0.5 mag suggests such SNe could be discovered out to z ~2.5 in the PS1 survey.

astro-ph.CO

The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: The Galaxy Luminosity Function to z ~ 1

The evolution of the B-band galaxy luminosity function is measured using a sample of more than 11,000 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from the DEEP2 Redshift Survey. The rest-frame M_B versus U-B color-magnitude diagram of DEEP2 galaxies shows that the color-magnitude bi-modality seen in galaxies locally is still present at redshifts z > 1. Dividing the sample at the trough of this color bimodality into predominantly red and blue galaxies, we find that the luminosity function of each galaxy color type evolves differently. Blue counts tend to shift to brighter magnitudes at constant number density, while the red counts remain largely constant at a fixed absolute magnitude. Using Schechter functions with fixed faint-end slopes we find that M*_B for blue galaxies brightens by ~ 1.3 magnitudes per unit redshift, with no significant evolution in number density. For red galaxies M*_B brightens somewhat less with redshift, while the formal value of phi* declines. When the population of blue galaxies is subdivided into two halves using the rest-frame color as the criterion, the measured evolution of both blue subpopulations is very similar.

astro-ph

Galaxy Luminosity Functions to z~1: DEEP2 vs. COMBO-17 and Implications for Red Galaxy Formation

The DEEP2 and COMBO-17 surveys are used to study the evolution of the luminosity function of red and blue galaxies to $z \sim 1$. Schechter function fits show that, since $z = 1$, $M^*_B$ dims by $\sim$ 1.3 mag per unit redshift for both color classes, $ϕ^*$ of blue galaxies shows little change, while $ϕ^*$ for red galaxies has formally nearly quadrupled. At face value, the number density of blue galaxies has remained roughly constant since $ z = 1$, whereas that of red galaxies has been rising. Luminosity densities support both conclusions, but we note that most red-galaxy evolution occurs between our data and local surveys and in our highest redshift bin, where the data are weakest. We discuss the implications of having most red galaxies emerge after $z = 1$ from precursors among the blue population, taking into account the properties of local and distant E/S0s. We suggest a ``mixed'' scenario in which some blue galaxies have their star-formation quenched in gas-rich mergers, migrate to the red sequence with a variety of masses, and merge further on the red sequence in one or more purely stellar mergers. E/S0s of a given mass today will have formed via different routes, in a manner that may help to explain the fundamental plane and other local scaling laws.

astro-ph

Weak Lensing by High-Redshift Clusters of Galaxies II: Mean Redshift of the Faint Background Galaxy Population

We use weak lensing shear measurements of six z>0.5 clusters of galaxies to derive the mean lensing redshift of the background galaxies used to measure the shear. Five of these clusters are compared to X-ray mass models and verify a mean lensing redshift for a 23<R<26.3, R-I<0.9 background galaxy population in good agreement with photometric redshift surveys of the HDF-S. The lensing strength of the six clusters is also analyzed as a function of the magnitude of the background galaxies, and an increase in shear with increasing magnitude is detected at moderate significance. The change in the strength of the shear is presumed to be caused by an increase in the mean redshift of the background galaxies with increasing magnitude, and the degree of change detected is also in agreement with those in photometric redshift surveys of the HDF-S.

astro-ph

The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST)

The Galactic Exoplanet Survey Telescope (GEST) will observe a 2 square degree field in the Galactic bulge to search for extra-solar planets using a gravitational lensing technique. This gravitational lensing technique is the only method employing currently available technology that can detect Earth-mass planets at high signal-to-noise, and can measure the frequency of terrestrial planets as a function of Galactic position. GEST's sensitivity extends down to the mass of Mars, and it can detect hundreds of terrestrial planets with semi-major axes ranging from 0.7 AU to infinity. GEST will be the first truly comprehensive survey of the Galaxy for planets like those in our own Solar System.

astro-ph

Science Objectives and Early Results of the DEEP2 Redshift Survey

The DEIMOS spectrograph has now been installed on the Keck-II telescope and commissioning is nearly complete. The DEEP2 Redshift Survey, which will take approximately 120 nights at the Keck Observatory over a three year period and has been designed to utilize the power of DEIMOS, began in the summer of 2002. The multiplexing power and high efficiency of DEIMOS enables us to target 1000 faint galaxies per clear night. Our goal is to gather high-quality spectra of \~60,000 galaxies with z>0.75 in order to study the properties and large scale clustering of galaxies at z ~ 1. The survey will be executed at high spectral resolution, $R=λ/Δλ\approx 5000$, allowing us to work between the bright OH sky emission lines and to infer linewidths for many of the target galaxies (for several thousand objects, we will obtain rotation curves as well). The linewidth data will facilitate the execution of the classical redshift-volume cosmological test, which can provide a precision measurement of the equation of state of the Universe. This talk reviews the project, summarizes our science goals and presents some early DEIMOS data.

astro-ph

Weak Lensing by High-Redshift Clusters of Galaxies - I: Cluster Mass Reconstruction

We present the results of a weak lensing survey of six high-redshift (z > 0.5), X-ray selected clusters of galaxies. We have obtained ultra-deep R-band images of each cluster with the Keck Telescope, and have measured a weak lensing signal from each cluster. From the background galaxy ellipticities we create two-dimensional maps of the surface mass density of each cluster. We find that the substructure seen in the mass reconstructions typically agree well with substructure in both the cluster galaxy distributions and X-ray images of the clusters. We also measure the one-dimensional radial profiles of the lensing signals and fit these with both isothermal spheres and "universal" CDM profiles. We find that the more massive clusters are less compact and not as well fit by isothermal spheres as the less massive clusters, possibly indicating that they are still in the process of collapse.

astro-ph

Weak Lensing Observations of High-Redshift Clusters of Galaxies

We present results of a weak gravitational lensing survey of six X-ray selected high-redshift clusters of galaxies. We find that the masses of the clusters derived from weak lensing are comparable to those derived from the X-ray observations. We show that many of the clusters have significant substructure not observed in the X-ray observations and that for the more massive clusters a singular isothermal sphere does not provide a good fit to the radial mass profile.

astro-ph

A Photometric Study of the Supercluster MS0302 with the UH8K CCD Camera: Image Processing and Object Catalogs

We describe in detail the processing of a set of images of the z = 0.42 supercluster MS0302 taken with the UH8K camera at CFHT. The result of this is a pair of seamless combined V- and I-band images of the field, along with a characterization of the noise properties and of the point spread function (PSF), and catalogs of about 30,000 faint galaxies. The analysis involves the following steps: image preparation; detection of stars and registration to find the transformation from detector to sky coordinates; correction for extinction and/or gain variations; modeling of the PSF; generation of images with a circular PSF; image warping and averaging; modeling of the noise auto-correlation function; faint object detection, aperture photometry, and shape measurement. The shear analysis is described elsewhere.

astro-ph

A Photometric and Weak Lensing Analysis of the z=0.42 Supercluster MS0302+17

We perform a weak lensing and photometric study of the z=0.42 supercluster MS0302+17 using deep I and V band images taken with the UH8K CCD mosaic camera at the CFHT. We use archival ROSAT HRI data to estimate fluxes, gas masses and, in one case, the binding mass of the three major clusters. We then use our CCD data to determine the optical richness and luminosities of the clusters and to map out the spatial distribution of the early type galaxies in the supercluster and in other foreground and background structures. We measure the gravitational shear from a sample of \simeq 30,000 faint background galaxies in the range 22 < m_I < 26 and find this correlates strongly with that predicted from the early type galaxies if they trace the mass with M/L_B \simeq 250 h. We make 2-dimensional reconstructions of the mass surface density. These recover all of the major concentrations of galaxies and indicate that most of the supercluster mass, like the early type galaxies, is concentrated in the three X-ray clusters, and we obtain mean mass-to-light ratios for the clusters of M/L_B \simeq 260 h. Cross-correlation of the measured mass surface density with that predicted from the early type galaxy distribution shows a strong peak at zero lag (significant at the \simeq 9-sigma level), and that at separations \gsim 200 h^{-1}$kpc the early galaxies trace the mass very accurately. This conclusion is supported by cross-correlation in Fourier space; we see little evidence for any variation of M/L or `bias' with scale, and from the longest wavelength modes with λ= 1.5-6 h^{-1}Mpc we find M/L \simeq (280 \pm 40)h, quite similar to that obtained for the cluster centers. We discuss the implication of these results for the cosmological density parameter.

astro-ph

Weak Lensing by Two z~0.8 Clusters of Galaxies

We report the detection of weak gravitational lensing of distant background galaxies by two rich, X-ray luminous clusters of galaxies, MS 1137+66 at z=0.783 and RXJ 1716+67 at z=0.813. We detect a shear signal in each cluster over the radial range 100 ~0.8.

astro-ph

X-ray QSO evolution from a very deep ROSAT survey

In the deepest optically identified X-ray survey yet performed, we have identified 32 X-ray selected QSOs to a flux limit of 2x10^{-15} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} (0.5-2 keV). The survey, performed with the ROSAT PSPC, has 89% spectroscopic completeness. The QSO log(N)-log(S) relation is found to have a break to a flat slope at faint fluxes. The surface density of QSOs at the survey limit is 230+/-40 per square degree, the largest so far of any QSO survey. We have used this survey to measure the QSO X-ray luminosity function at low luminosities (Lx<10^{44.5} erg s^{-1}) and high redshifts (1<z<2.5). The highest redshift QSO in the survey has z=3.4. Combined with the QSOs from the Einstein EMSS at bright fluxes, we find pure luminosity evolution of the form Lx proportional to (1+z)^{3.0(+0.2,-0.3)} is an adequate description of the evolution of the X-ray luminosity function at low redshifts. A redshift cutoff in the evolution is required at z=1.4 ^{+0.4}_{-0.17} (for qo=0.5). We discuss the form of this evolution, its dependence on the model assumed and the errors on the derived parameters. We show that most previous X-ray surveys, including the EMSS, are consistent with a power law luminosity evolution index of 3.0. The contribution of QSOs to the 1-2 keV cosmic X-ray background is found to be between 31% and 51%.

astro-ph