arXiv subjects

J. -P. Kneib

Publications and source records attributed to J. -P. Kneib.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

K+a galaxies in the zCOSMOS Survey: Physical properties of systems in their post-starburst phase

The identities of the main processes triggering and quenching star-formation in galaxies remain unclear. A key stage in evolution, however, appears to be represented by post-starburst galaxies. To investigate their impact on galaxy evolution, we initiated a multiwavelength study of galaxies with k+a spectral features in the COSMOS field. We examine a mass-selected sample of k+a galaxies at z=0.48-1.2 using the spectroscopic zCOSMOS sample. K+a galaxies occupy the brightest tail of the luminosity distribution. They are as massive as quiescent galaxies and populate the green valley in the colour versus luminosity (or stellar mass) distribution. A small percentage (<8%) of these galaxies have radio and/or X-ray counterparts (implying an upper limit to the SFR of ~8Msun/yr). Over the entire redshift range explored, the class of k+a galaxies is morphologically a heterogeneous population with a similar incidence of bulge-dominated and disky galaxies. This distribution does not vary with the strength of the Hdelta absorption line but instead with stellar mass in a way reminiscent of the well-known mass-morphology relation. Although k+a galaxies are also found in underdense regions, they appear to reside typically in a similarly rich environment as quiescent galaxies on a physical scale of ~2-8Mpc, and in groups they show a morphological early-to-late type ratio similar to the quiescent galaxy class. With the current data set, we do not find evidence of statistical significant evolution in either the number/mass density of k+a galaxies at intermediate redshift with respect to the local values, or the spectral properties. Those galaxies, which are affected by a sudden quenching of their star-formation activity, may increase the stellar mass of the red-sequence by up to a non-negligible level of ~10%.

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arXiv2010

Limits on the luminosity function of Ly-alpha emitters at z = 7.7

The Ly-alpha luminosity function (LF) of high-redshift Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) is one of the few observables of the re-ionization epoch accessible to date with 8-10 m class telescopes. The evolution with redshift allows one to constrain the evolution of LAEs and their role in re-ionizing the Universe at the end of the Dark Ages. We have performed a narrow-band imaging program at 1.06 microns at the CFHT, targeting Ly-alpha emitters at redshift z ~ 7.7 in the CFHT-LS D1 field. From these observations we have derived a photometric sample of 7 LAE candidates at z ~ 7.7. We derive luminosity functions for the full sample of seven objects and for sub-samples of four objects. If the brightest objects in our sample are real, we infer a luminosity function which would be difficult to reconcile with previous work at lower redshift. More definitive conclusions will require spectroscopic confirmation.

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arXiv2009

Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly between 0.2<z<2 from the S-COSMOS survey

We follow the galaxy stellar mass assembly by morphological and spectral type in the COSMOS 2-deg^2 field. We derive the stellar mass functions and stellar mass densities from z=2 to z=0.2 using 196,000 galaxies selected at F(3.6 micron) > 1 microJy with accurate photometric redshifts (sigma_((zp-zs)/(1+zs))=0.008 at i<22.5). Using a spectral classification, we find that z~1 is an epoch of transition in the stellar mass assembly of quiescent galaxies. Their stellar mass density increases by 1.1 dex between z=1.5-2 and z=0.8-1 (Delta t ~2.5 Gyr), but only by 0.3 dex between z=0.8-1 and z~0.1 (Delta t ~ 6 Gyr). Then, we add the morphological information and find that 80-90% of the massive quiescent galaxies (log(M)~11) have an elliptical morphology at z<0.8. Therefore, a dominant mechanism links the shutdown of star formation and the acquisition of an elliptical morphology in massive galaxies. Still, a significant fraction of quiescent galaxies present a Spi/Irr morphology at low mass (40-60% at log(M)~9.5), but this fraction is smaller than predicted by semi-analytical models using a ``halo quenching'' recipe. We also analyze the evolution of star-forming galaxies and split them into ``intermediate activity'' and ``high activity'' galaxies. We find that the most massive ``high activity'' galaxies end their high star formation rate phase first. Finally, the space density of massive star-forming galaxies becomes lower than the space density of massive elliptical galaxies at z<1. As a consequence, the rate of ``wet mergers'' involved in the formation of the most massive ellipticals must decline very rapidly at z<1, which could explain the observed slow down in the assembly of these quiescent and massive sources.

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arXiv2009

COSMOS 5921+0638: Characterization and analysis of a new strong gravitationally lensed AGN

[abridged] We present VLT/FORS1 spectroscopic follow-up observations and HST/WFPC2 imaging of the system COSMOS 5921+0638, which exhibits quadruply lensed images and a perfect Einstein ring. We investigate the nature of COSMOS 5921+0638 by studying its photometric, spectroscopic and physical properties. We completed both an environmental analysis and detailed analytical and grid-based mass modeling of the system. We measured the redshifts of the lensing galaxy in COSMOS 5921+0638 (z_l=0.551+/-0.001) and 9 additional galaxies in the field (5 of them at z~0.35). The redshift of the lensed source was inferred by identifying a candidate Lya line at z_s=3.14+/-0.05. The mass modeling reveals the requirement of a small external shear (gamma=0.038), which is slightly larger than the lensing contribution expected by galaxy groups along the line-of-sight (kappa_groups~0.01 and gamma_groups~0.005). The estimated time-delays between the different images are of the order of hours to half a week and the total magnification of the background source is mu~150. The measured mass-to-light ratio of the lensing galaxy within the Einstein ring is M/L_B~8.5+/-1.6. Our analysis indicates that the ring and point-like structures in COSMOS 5921+0638 consist of a lensed high redshift galaxy hosting a low luminosity AGN (LLAGN). Flux ratio anomalies observed in the lensed AGN images are probably due to microlensing by stars in the lensing galaxy and/or a combination of static phenomena. Because of its short time-delays and the possibility of microlensing, COSMOS 5921+0638 is a promising laboratory for future studies of LLAGNs.

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arXiv2009

Physical properties and morphology of a newly identified compact z=4.04 lensed submillimeter galaxy in Abell 2218

We present the identification of a bright submm source, SMMJ163555.5+661300, detected in the lensing cluster Abell2218, for which we have accurately determined the position using observations from the Submillimeter Array (SMA). The identified optical counterpart has a spectroscopic redshift of z=4.044+-0.001 if we attribute the single emission line detected at lambda=6140AA to Lyman-alpha. This redshift identification is in good agreement with the optical/near-infrared photometric redshift as well as the submm flux ratio S_450/S_850~1.6, the radio-submm flux ratio S_1.4/S_850 < 0.004, and the 24um to 850um flux ratio S_24/S_850 < 0.005. Correcting for the gravitational lensing amplification of ~5.5, we find that the source has a far-infrared luminosity of 1.3x10^12 Lsun, which implies a star formation rate of 230 Msun/yr. This makes it the lowest-luminosity SMG known at z>4 to date. Previous CO(4-3) emission line obserations yielded a non-detection, for which we derived an upper limit of the CO line luminosity of L'_CO = 0.3x10^10 K km/s/pc^2, which is not inconsistent with the L'_CO - L_FIR relation for starburst galaxies. The best fit model to the optical and near-infrared photometry give a stellar population with an age of 1.4 Gyr and a stellar mass of 1.6x10^10 Msun. The optical morphology is compact and in the source plane the galaxy has an extent of ~6kpc x 3kpc with individual star forming knots of <500 pc in size. J163556 is not resolved in the SMA data and we place a strict upper limit on the size of the starburst region of 8kpc x 3kpc, which implies a lower limit on the star formation rate surface density of 12 Msun/yr/kpc^2. The redshift of J163556 extends the redshift distribution of faint, lensed SMGs, and we find no evidence that these have a different redshift distribution than bright SMGs.

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arXiv2009

The Build-Up of the Hubble Sequence in the COSMOS Field

We use ~8,600 >5e10 Msol COSMOS galaxies to study how the morphological mix of massive ellipticals, bulge-dominated disks, intermediate-bulge disks, bulge-less disks and irregular galaxies evolves from z=0.2 to z=1. The morphological evolution depends strongly on mass. At M>3e11 Msol, no evolution is detected in the morphological mix: ellipticals dominate since z=1, and the Hubble sequence has quantitatively settled down by this epoch. At the 1e11 Msol mass scale, little evolution is detected, which can be entirely explained with major mergers. Most of the morphological evolution from z=1 to z=0.2 takes place at masses 5e10 - 1e11 Msol, where: (i) The fraction of spirals substantially drops and the contribution of early-types increases. This increase is mostly produced by the growth of bulge-dominated disks, which vary their contribution from ~10% at z=1 to >30% at z=0.2 (cf. the elliptical fraction grows from ~15% to ~20%). Thus, at these masses, transformations from late- to early-types result in disk-less elliptical morphologies with a statistical frequency of only 30% - 40%. Otherwise, the processes which are responsible for the transformations either retain or produce a non-negligible disk component. (ii) The bulge-less disk galaxies, which contribute ~15% to the intermediate-mass galaxy population at z=1, virtually disappear by z=0.2. The merger rate since z=1 is too low to account for the disappearance of these massive bulge-less disks, which most likely grow a bulge via secular evolution.

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arXiv2009

Properties and environment of Radio Emitting Galaxies in the VLA-zCOSMOS survey

We investigate the properties and the environment of radio sources with optical counterpart from the combined VLA-COSMOS and zCOSMOS samples. The advantage of this sample is the availability of optical spectroscopic information, high quality redshifts, and accurate density determination. By comparing the star formation rates estimated from the optical spectral energy distribution with those based on the radio luminosity, we divide the radio sources in three families, passive AGN, non-passive AGN and star forming galaxies. These families occupy specific regions of the 8.0-4.5 $μ$m infrared color--specific star formation plane, from which we extract the corresponding control samples. Only the passive AGN have a significantly different environment distribution from their control sample. The fraction of radio-loud passive AGN increases from ~2% in underdense regions to ~15% for overdensities (1+delta) greater than 10. This trend is also present as a function of richness of the groups hosting the radio sources. Passive AGN in overdensities tend to have higher radio luminosities than those in lower density environments. Since the black hole mass distribution is similar in both environments, we speculate that, for low radio luminosities, the radio emission is controlled (through fuel disponibility or confinement of radio jet by local gas pressure) by the interstellar medium of the host galaxy, while in other cases it is determined by the structure (group or cluster) in which the galaxy resides.

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arXiv2009

The optical spectra of Spitzer 24 micron galaxies in the COSMOS field: II. Faint infrared sources in the zCOSMOS-bright 10k catalogue

We have used the zCOSMOS-bright 10k sample to identify 3244 Spitzer/MIPS 24-micron-selected galaxies with 0.06< S(24um)< 0.50 mJy and I(AB)<22.5, over 1.5 deg^2 of the COSMOS field, and studied different spectral properties, depending on redshift. At 0.2<z<0.3, we found that different reddening laws of common use in the literature explain the dust extinction properties of around 80% of our infrared (IR) sources, within the error bars. For up to 16% of objects, instead, the Halpha/Hbeta ratios are too high for their IR/UV attenuations, which is probably a consequence of inhomogenous dust distributions. In only a few of our galaxies at 0.2<z<0.3 the IR emission could be mainly produced by dust heated by old rather than young stars. Besides, the line ratios of ~22% of our galaxies suggest that they might be star-formation/nuclear-activity composite systems. At 0.5<z<0.7, we estimated galaxy metallicities for 301 galaxies: at least 12% of them are securely below the upper-branch mass-metallicity trend, which is consistent with the local relation. Finally, we performed a combined analysis of the Hdelta equivalent-width versus Dn(4000) diagram for 1722 faint and bright 24um galaxies at 0.6<z<1.0, spanning two decades in mid-IR luminosity. We found that, while secondary bursts of star formation are necessary to explain the position of the most luminous IR galaxies in that diagram, quiescent, exponentially-declining star formation histories can well reproduce the spectral properties of ~40% of the less luminous sources. Our results suggest a transition in the possible modes of star formation at total IR luminosities L(TIR)=(3 +/-2)x10^11 Lsun.

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arXiv2009

On the cosmic evolution of the scaling relations between black holes and their host galaxies: Broad Line AGN in the zCOSMOS survey

(Abriged) We report on the measurement of the rest frame K-band luminosity and total stellar mass of the hosts of 89 broad line Active Galactic Nuclei detected in the zCOSMOS survey in the redshift range 1<z<2.2. The unprecedented multiwavelength coverage of the survey field allows us to disentangle the emission of the host galaxy from that of the nuclear black hole in their Spectral Energy Distributions. We derive an estimate of black hole masses through the analysis of the broad Mg II emission lines observed in the medium-resolution spectra taken with VIMOS/VLT as part of the zCOSMOS project. We found that, as compared to the local value, the average black hole to host galaxy mass ratio appears to evolve positively with redshift, with a best fit evolution of the form (1+z)^{0.68 \pm0.12 +0.6 -0.3}, where the large asymmetric systematic errors stem from the uncertainties in the choice of IMF, in the calibration of the virial relation used to estimate BH masses and in the mean QSO SED adopted. A thorough analysis of observational biases induced by intrinsic scatter in the scaling relations reinforces the conclusion that an evolution of the MBH-M* relation must ensue for actively growing black holes at early times: either its overall normalization, or its intrinsic scatter (or both) appear to increase with redshift. This can be interpreted as signature of either a more rapid growth of supermassive black holes at high redshift, a change of structural properties of AGN hosts at earlier times, or a significant mismatch between the typical growth times of nuclear black holes and host galaxies.

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arXiv2009

The nonlinear biasing of the 10k zCOSMOS galaxies up to z~1

We use the overdensity field reconstructed in the volume of the COSMOS area to study the nonlinear biasing of the zCOSMOS galaxies. The galaxy overdensity field is reconstructed using the current sample of ~8500 accurate zCOSMOS redshifts at I(AB)<22.5 out to z~1 on scales R from 8 to 12 Mpc/h. By comparing the probability distribution function (PDF) of galaxy density contrast delta_g to the lognormal approximation of the PDF of the mass density contrast delta, we obtain the mean biasing function b(delta,z,R) between the galaxy and matter overdensity field and its second moments b(hat) and b(tilde) up to z~1. Over the redshift interval 0.4 = b(delta,z,R) delta is of the following characteristic shape. The function vanishes in the most underdense regions and then sharply rises in a nonlinear way towards the mean densities. is almost a linear tracer of the matter in the overdense regions, up to the most overdense regions in which it is nonlinear again and the local effective slope of vs. delta is smaller than unity. The function is evolving only slightly over the redshift interval 0.4<z<1. The linear biasing parameter increases from b(hat)=1.24+/-0.11 at z=0.4 to b(hat)=1.64+/-0.15 at z=1 for the M_B<-20-z sample of galaxies. b(hat) does not show any dependence on the smoothing scale from 8 to 12 Mpc/h, but increases with luminosity. The measured nonlinearity parameter b(tilde)/b(hat) is of the order of a few percent (but it can be consistent with 0) and it does not change with redshift, the smoothing scale or the luminosity. By matching the linear bias of galaxies to the halo bias, we infer that the M_B<-20-z galaxies reside in dark matter haloes with a characteristic mass of about 3-6 x 10^12 Msol, depending on the halo bias fit.

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arXiv2009

The 10k zCOSMOS: morphological transformation of galaxies in the group environment since z~1

We study the evolution of galaxies inside and outside of the group environment since z=1 using a large well defined set of groups and galaxies from the zCOSMOS-bright redshift survey in the COSMOS field. The fraction of galaxies with early-type morphologies increases monotonically with M_B luminosity and stellar mass and with cosmic epoch. It is higher in the groups than elsewhere, especially at later epochs. The emerging environmental effect is superposed on a strong global mass-driven evolution, and at z~0.5 and log(M*/Msol)~10.2, the "effect" of group environment is equivalent to (only) about 0.2 dex in stellar mass or 2 Gyr in time. The stellar mass function of galaxies in groups is enriched in massive galaxies. We directly determine the transformation rates from late to early morphologies, and for transformations involving colour and star formation indicators. The transformation rates are systematically about twice as high in the groups as outside, or up to 3-4 times higher correcting for infall and the appearance of new groups. The rates reach values, for masses around the crossing mass 10^10.5 Msol, as high as (0.3-0.7)/Gyr in the groups, implying transformation timescales of 1.4-3 Gyr, compared with less than 0.2/Gyr, i.e. timescales >5 Gyr, outside of groups. All three transformation rates decrease at higher stellar masses, and must decrease also at the lower masses below 10^10 Msol which we cannot well probe. The rates involving colour and star formation are consistently higher than those for morphology, by a factor of about 50%. Our conclusion is that the transformations which drive the evolution of the overall galaxy population since z~1 must occur at a rate 2-4 times higher in groups than outside of them.

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arXiv2009

The zCOSMOS Redshift Survey: How group environment alters global downsizing trends

We took advantage of the wealth of information provided by the first ~10000 galaxies of the zCOSMOS-bright survey and its group catalogue to study the complex interplay between group environment and galaxy properties. The classical indicator F_blue (fraction of blue galaxies) proved to be a simple but powerful diagnostic tool. We studied its variation for different luminosity and mass selected galaxy samples. Using rest-frame B-band selected samples, the groups galaxy population exhibits significant blueing as redshift increases, but maintains a lower F_blue with respect both to the global and the isolated galaxy population. However moving to mass selected samples it becomes apparent that such differences are largely due to the biased view imposed by the B-band luminosity selection, being driven by the population of lower mass, bright blue galaxies for which we miss the redder, equally low mass, counterparts. By focusing the analysis on narrow mass bins such that mass segregation becomes negligible we find that only for the lowest mass bin explored (logMass <= 10.6) does a significant residual difference in color remain as a function of environment, while this difference becomes negligible toward higher masses. Our results indicate that red galaxies of logMass >= 10.8 are already in place at z ~ 1 and do not exhibit any strong environmental dependence, possibly originating from so-called 'nature'/internal mechanisms. In contrast, for lower galaxy masses and redshifts lower than z ~ 1, we observe the emergence in groups of a population of 'nurture' red galaxies: slightly deviating from the trend of the downsizing scenario followed by the global galaxy population, and more so with cosmic time. These galaxies exhibit signatures of group-related secular physical mechanisms directly influencing galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2009

The Dependence of Star Formation Activity on Stellar Mass Surface Density and Sersic Index in zCOSMOS Galaxies at 0.5<z<0.9 Compared with SDSS Galaxies at 0.04<z<0.08

One of the key unanswered questions in the study of galaxy evolution is what physical processes inside galaxies drive the changes in the SFRs in individual galaxies that, taken together, produce the large decline in the global star-formation rate density (SFRD) to redshifts since z~2. Many studies of the SFR at intermediate redshifts have been made as a function of the integrated stellar mass of galaxies but these did not use information on the internal structural properties of the galaxies. In this paper we present a comparative study of the dependence of SFRs on the average surface mass densities (SigmaM) of galaxies of different morphological types up to z~1 using the zCOSMOS and SDSS surveys. The main findings about the evolution of these relatively massive galaxies are: 1) There is evidence that, for both SDSS ans zCOSMOS galaxies, the mean specific SFR within a given population (either disk-dominated or bulge-dominated) is independent of SigmaM; 2) The observed SSFR - SigmaM step-function relation is due, at all investigated redshifts, to the changing mix of disk-dominated and bulge-dominated galaxies as surface density increases and the strong difference in the average SSFR between disks and bulges. We also find a modest differential evolution in the size-mass relations of disk and spheroid galaxies; 3) The shape of the median SSFR - SigmaM relation is similar, but with median SSFR values that are about 5-6 times higher in zCOSMOS galaxies than for SDSS, across the whole range of SigmaM, and in both spheroid and disk galaxies. This increase matches that of the global SFRD of the Universe as a whole, emphasizing that galaxies of all types are contributing, proportionally, to the global increase in SFRD in the Universe back to these redshifts (abridged).

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arXiv2009

The zCOSMOS Survey. The dependence of clustering on luminosity and stellar mass at z=0.2-1

We study the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and stellar mass at redshifts z ~ [0.2-1] using the first zCOSMOS 10K sample. We measure the redshift-space correlation functions xi(rp,pi) and its projection wp(rp) for sub-samples covering different luminosity, mass and redshift ranges. We quantify in detail the observational selection biases and we check our covariance and error estimate techniques using ensembles of semi-analytic mock catalogues. We finally compare our measurements to the cosmological model predictions from the mock surveys. At odds with other measurements, we find a weak dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity in all redshift bins explored. A mild dependence on stellar mass is instead observed. At z~0.7, wp(rp) shows strong excess power on large scales. We interpret this as produced by large-scale structure dominating the survey volume and extending preferentially in direction perpendicular to the line-of-sight. We do not see any significant evolution with redshift of the amplitude of clustering for bright and/or massive galaxies. The clustering measured in the zCOSMOS data at 0.5 =10 is only marginally consistent with predictions from the mock surveys. On scales larger than ~2 h^-1 Mpc, the observed clustering amplitude is compatible only with ~1% of the mocks. Thus, if the power spectrum of matter is LCDM with standard normalization and the bias has no unnatural scale-dependence, this result indicates that COSMOS has picked up a particularly rare, ~2-3 sigma positive fluctuation in a volume of ~10^6 h^-1 Mpc^3. These findings underline the need for larger surveys of the z~1 Universe to appropriately characterize the level of structure at this epoch.

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arXiv2009

A New Window of Exploration in the Mass Spectrum: Strong Lensing by Galaxy Groups in the SL2S

The existence of strong lensing systems with Einstein radii (Re) covering the full mass spectrum, from ~1-2" (produced by galaxy scale dark matter haloes) to >10" (produced by galaxy cluster scale haloes) have long been predicted. Many lenses with Re around 1-2" and above 10" have been reported but very few in between. In this article, we present a sample of 13 strong lensing systems with Re in the range 3"- 8", i.e. systems produced by galaxy group scale dark matter haloes, spanning a redshift range from 0.3 to 0.8. This opens a new window of exploration in the mass spectrum, around 10^{13}- 10^{14} M_{sun}, which is a crucial range for understanding the transition between galaxies and galaxy clusters. Our analysis is based on multi-colour CFHTLS images complemented with HST imaging and ground based spectroscopy. Large scale properties are derived from both the light distribution of the elliptical galaxies group members and weak lensing of the faint background galaxy population. On small scales, the strong lensing analysis yields Einstein radii between 2.5" and 8". On larger scales, the strong lenses coincide with the peak of the light distribution, suggesting that mass is traced by light. Most of the luminosity maps have complicated shapes, indicating that these intermediate mass structures are dynamically young. Fitting the reduced shear with a Singular Isothermal Sphere, we find sigma ~ 500 km/s and an upper limit of ~900 km/s for the whole sample. The mass to light ratio for the sample is found to be M/L_i ~ 250 (solar units, corrected for evolution), with an upper limit of 500. This can be compared to mass to light ratios of small groups (with sigma ~ 300 km/s and galaxy clusters with sigma > 1000 km/s, thus bridging the gap between these mass scales.

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arXiv2009

Catastrophic Photo-z Errors and the Dark Energy Parameter Estimates with Cosmic Shear

We study the impact of catastrophic errors occurring in the photometric redshifts of galaxies on cosmological parameter estimates with cosmic shear tomography. We consider a fiducial survey with 9-filter set and perform photo-z measurement simulations. It is found that a fraction of 1% galaxies at z_{spec}~0.4 is misidentified to be at z_{phot}~3.5. We then employ both chi^2 fitting method and the extension of Fisher matrix formalism to evaluate the bias on the equation of state parameters of dark energy, w_0 and w_a, induced by those catastrophic outliers. By comparing the results from both methods, we verify that the estimation of w_0 and w_a from the fiducial 5-bin tomographic analyses can be significantly biased. To minimize the impact of this bias, two strategies can be followed: (A) the cosmic shear analysis is restricted to 0.5 320 and 860 respectively in order to reduce the joint bias in (w_0,w_a) to be smaller than 2σand 1σ. This spectroscopic survey (option B) will improve the Figure of Merit of option A by a factor \times 1.5 thus making such a survey strongly desirable.

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arXiv2009

The density field of the 10k zCOSMOS galaxies

We use the current sample of ~10,000 zCOSMOS spectra of sources selected with I(AB) < 22.5 to define the density field out to z~1, with much greater resolution in the radial dimension than has been possible with either photometric redshifts or weak lensing. We apply new algorithms that we have developed (ZADE) to incorporate objects not yet observed spectroscopically by modifying their photometric redshift probability distributions using the spectroscopic redshifts of nearby galaxies. This strategy allows us to probe a broader range of galaxy environments and reduce the Poisson noise in the density field. The reconstructed overdensity field of the 10k zCOSMOS galaxies consists of cluster-like patterns surrounded by void-like regions, extending up to z~1. Some of these structures are very large, spanning the ~50 Mpc/h transverse direction of the COSMOS field and extending up to Delta z~0.05 in redshift. We present the three dimensional overdensity maps and compare the reconstructed overdensity field to the independently identified virialised groups of galaxies and clusters detected in the visible and in X-rays. The distribution of the overdense structures is in general well traced by these virialised structures. A comparison of the large scale structures in the zCOSMOS data and in the mock catalogues reveals an excellent agreement between the fractions of the volume enclosed in structures of all sizes above a given overdensity between the data and the mocks in 0.2<z<1.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

On the contribution of large scale structure to strong gravitational lensing

We study the correlation between the locations of galaxy-galaxy strong lensing candidates and tracers of large-scale structure from both weak lensing or X-ray emission. The COSMOS survey is a unique data set, combining deep, high resolution and contiguous imaging in which strong lenses have been discovered, plus unparalleled multiwavelength coverage. To help interpret the COSMOS data, we have also produced mock COSMOS strong and weak lensing observations, based on ray-tracing through the Millenium simulation. In agreement with the simulations, we find that strongly lensed images with the largest angular separations are found in the densest regions of the COSMOS field. This is explained by a prevalence among the lens population in dense environments of elliptical galaxies with high total-to-stellar mass ratios, which can deflect light through larger angles. However, we also find that the overall fraction of elliptical galaxies with strong gravitational lensing is independent of the local mass density; this observation is not true of the simulations, which predict an increasing fraction of strong lenses in dense environments. The discrepancy may be a real effect, but could also be explained by various limitations of our analysis. For example, our visual search of strong lens systems could be incomplete and suffer from selection bias; the luminosity function of elliptical galaxies may differ between our real and simulated data; or the simplifying assumptions and approximations used in our lensing simulations may be inadequate. Work is therefore ongoing. Automated searches for strong lens systems will be particularly important in better constraining the selection function.

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