arXiv subjects

Tim Schrabback

Publications and source records attributed to Tim Schrabback.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Tightening weak lensing constraints on the ellipticity of galaxy-scale dark matter haloes

Cosmological simulations predict that galaxies are embedded into triaxial dark matter haloes, which appear approximately elliptical in projection. Weak gravitational lensing allows us to constrain these halo shapes and thereby test the nature of dark matter. Weak lensing has already provided robust detections of the signature of halo flattening at the mass scales of groups and clusters, whereas results for galaxies have been somewhat inconclusive. Here we combine data from five surveys (NGVSLenS, KiDS/KV450, CFHTLenS, CS82, and RCSLenS) in order to tighten observational constraints on galaxy-scale halo ellipticity for photometrically selected lens samples. We constrain $f_\rm{h}$, the average ratio between the aligned component of the halo ellipticity and the ellipticity of the light distribution, finding $f_\rm{h}=0.303^{+0.080}_{-0.079}$ for red lenses and $f_\rm{h}=0.217^{+0.160}_{-0.159}$ for blue lenses when assuming elliptical NFW density profiles and a linear scaling between halo ellipticity and galaxy ellipticity. Our constraints for red galaxies constitute the currently most significant ($3.8σ$) systematics-corrected detection of the signature of halo flattening at the mass scale of galaxies. Our results are in good agreement with expectations from the Millennium Simulation that apply the same analysis scheme and incorporate models for galaxy-halo misalignment. Assuming these misalignment models and the analysis assumptions stated above are correct, our measurements imply an average dark matter halo ellipticity for the studied red galaxy samples of $\langle|ε_\rm{h}|\rangle=0.174\pm 0.046$, where $|ε_{h}|=(1-q)/(1+q)$ relates to the ratio $q=b/a$ of the minor and major axes of the projected mass distribution. Similar measurements based on larger upcoming weak lensing data sets can help to calibrate models for intrinsic galaxy alignments. [abridged]

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arXiv2020

Validation of PSF Models for HST and Other Space-Based Observations

Forthcoming space-based observations will require high-quality point-spread function (PSF) models for weak gravitational lensing measurements. One approach to generating these models is using a wavefront model based on the known telescope optics. We present an empirical framework for validating such models to confirm that they match the actual PSF to within requirements by comparing the models to the observed light distributions of isolated stars. We apply this framework to Tiny Tim, the standard tool for generating model PSFs for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), testing its models against images taken by HST's Advanced Camera for Surveys in the Wide Field Channel. We show that Tiny Tim's models, in the default configuration, differ significantly from the observed PSFs, most notably in their sizes. We find that the quality of Tiny Tim PSFs can be improved through fitting the full set of Zernike polynomial coefficients which characterise the optics, to the point where the practical significance of the difference between model and observed PSFs is negligible for most use cases, resulting in additive and multiplicative biases both of order approximately 4e-4. We also show that most of this improvement can be retained through using an updated set of Zernike coefficients, which we provide.

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arXiv2019

Strong Lensing Model of SPT-CLJ0356-5337, a Major Merger Candidate at Redshift 1.0359

We present an analysis of the mass distribution inferred from strong lensing by SPT-CL J0356-5337, a cluster of galaxies at redshift z = 1.0359 revealed in the follow-up of the SPT-SZ clusters. The cluster has an Einstein radius of Erad=14 for a source at z = 3 and a mass within 500 kpc of M_500kpc = 4.0+-0.8x10^14Msol. Our spectroscopic identification of three multiply-imaged systems (z = 2.363, z = 2.364, and z = 3.048), combined with HST F606W-band imaging allows us to build a strong lensing model for this cluster with an rms of <0.3'' between the predicted and measured positions of the multiple images. Our modeling reveals a two-component mass distribution in the cluster. One mass component is dominated by the brightest cluster galaxy and the other component, separated by ~170 kpc, contains a group of eight red elliptical galaxies confined in a ~9'' (~70 kpc) diameter circle. We estimate the mass ratio between the two components to be between 1:1.25 and 1:1.58. In addition, spectroscopic data reveal that these two near-equal mass cores have only a small velocity difference of 300 km/s between the two components. This small radial velocity difference suggests that most of the relative velocity takes place in the plane of the sky, and implies that SPT-CL J0356-5337 is a major merger with a small impact parameter seen face-on. We also assess the relative contributions of galaxy-scale halos to the overall mass of the core of the cluster and find that within 800 kpc from the brightest cluster galaxy about 27% of the total mass can be attributed to visible and dark matter associated with galaxies, whereas only 73% of the total mass in the core comes from cluster-scale dark matter halos.

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arXiv2019

Optical follow-up study of 32 high-redshift galaxy cluster candidates from Planck with the William Herschel Telescope

The Planck satellite has detected cluster candidates via the Sunyaev Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, but the optical follow-up required to confirm these candidates is still incomplete, especially at high redshifts and for SZ detections at low significance. In this work we present our analysis of optical observations obtained for 32 Planck cluster candidates using ACAM on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope. These cluster candidates were preselected using SDSS, WISE, and Pan-STARRS images to likely represent distant clusters at redshifts $z \gtrsim 0.7$. We obtain photometric redshift and richness estimates for all of the cluster candidates from a red-sequence analysis of $r$-, $i$-, and $z$-band imaging data. In addition, long-slit observations allow us to measure the redshifts of a subset of the clusters spectroscopically. The optical richness is often lower than expected from the inferred SZ mass when compared to scaling relations previously calibrated at low redshifts. This likely indicates the impact of Eddington bias and projection effects or noise-induced detections, especially at low SZ-significance. Thus, optical follow-up not only provides redshift measurements, but also an important independent verification method. We find that 18 (7) of the candidates at redshifts $z > 0.5$ ($z > 0.8$) are at least half as rich as expected from scaling relations, thereby clearly confirming these candidates as massive clusters. While the complex selection function of our sample due to our preselection hampers its use for cosmological studies, we do provide a validation of massive high-redshift clusters particularly suitable for further astrophysical investigations.

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arXiv2019

Weak-lensing shear measurement with machine learning: teaching artificial neural networks about feature noise

Cosmic shear is a primary cosmological probe for several present and upcoming surveys investigating dark matter and dark energy, such as Euclid or WFIRST. The probe requires an extremely accurate measurement of the shapes of millions of galaxies based on imaging data. Crucially, the shear measurement must address and compensate for a range of interwoven nuisance effects related to the instrument optics and detector, noise, unknown galaxy morphologies, colors, blending of sources, and selection effects. This paper explores the use of supervised machine learning (ML) as a tool to solve this inverse problem. We present a simple architecture that learns to regress shear point estimates and weights via shallow artificial neural networks. The networks are trained on simulations of the forward observing process, and take combinations of moments of the galaxy images as inputs. A challenging peculiarity of this ML application is the combination of the noisiness of the input features and the requirements on the accuracy of the inverse regression. To address this issue, the proposed training algorithm minimizes bias over multiple realizations of individual source galaxies, reducing the sensitivity to properties of the overall sample of source galaxies. Importantly, an observational selection function of these source galaxies can be straightforwardly taken into account via the weights. We first introduce key aspects of our approach using toy-model simulations, and then demonstrate its potential on images mimicking Euclid data. Finally, we analyze images from the GREAT3 challenge, obtaining competitively low shear biases despite the use of a simple training set. We conclude that the further development of ML approaches is of high interest to meet the stringent requirements on the shear measurement in current and future surveys. A demonstration implementation of our technique is publicly available.

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arXiv2018

X-ray Properties of SPT Selected Galaxy Clusters at 0.2<z<1.5 Observed with XMM-Newton

We present measurements of the X-ray observables of the intra-cluster medium (ICM), including luminosity $L_X$, ICM mass $M_{ICM}$, emission-weighted mean temperature $T_X$, and integrated pressure $Y_X$, that are derived from XMM-Newton X-ray observations of a Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) selected sample of 59 galaxy clusters from the South Pole Telescope SPT-SZ survey that span the redshift range of $0.20 < z < 1.5$. We constrain the best-fit power law scaling relations between X-ray observables, redshift, and halo mass. The halo masses are estimated based on previously published SZE observable to mass scaling relations, calibrated using information that includes the halo mass function. Employing SZE-based masses in this sample enables us to constrain these scaling relations for massive galaxy clusters ($M_{500}\geq 3 \times10^{14}$ $M_\odot$) to the highest redshifts where these clusters exist without concern for X-ray selection biases. We find that the mass trends are steeper than self-similarity in all cases, and with $\geq 2.5σ$ significance in the case of $L_X$ and $M_{ICM}$. The redshift trends are consistent with the self-similar expectation, but the uncertainties remain large. Core-included scaling relations tend to have steeper mass trends for $L_X$. There is no convincing evidence for a redshift-dependent mass trend in any observable. The constraints on the amplitudes of the fitted scaling relations are currently limited by the systematic uncertainties on the SZE-based halo masses, however the redshift and mass trends are limited by the X-ray sample size and the measurement uncertainties of the X-ray observables.

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arXiv2018

Mass and Light of Abell 370: A Strong and Weak Lensing Analysis

We present a new gravitational lens model of the Hubble Frontier Fields cluster Abell 370 ($z = 0.375$) using imaging and spectroscopy from Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based spectroscopy. We combine constraints from a catalog of 1344 weakly lensed galaxies and 39 multiply-imaged sources comprised of 114 multiple images, including a system of multiply-imaged candidates at $z=7.93 \pm 0.02$, to obtain a best-fit mass distribution using the cluster lens modeling code Strong and Weak Lensing United. As the only analysis of A370 using strong and weak lensing constraints from Hubble Frontier Fields data, our method provides an independent check on assumptions in other methods on the mass distribution. Convergence, shear, and magnification maps are made publicly available through the HFF website. We find that the model we produce is similar to models produced by other groups, with some exceptions due to the differences in lensing code methodology. In an effort to study how our total projected mass distribution traces light, we measure the stellar mass density distribution using Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera imaging. Comparing our total mass density to our stellar mass density in a radius of 0.3 Mpc, we find a mean projected stellar to total mass ratio of $\langle f* \rangle = 0.011 \pm 0.003$ (stat.) using the diet Salpeter initial mass function. This value is in general agreement with independent measurements of $\langle f* \rangle$ in clusters of similar total mass and redshift.

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arXiv2018

RELICS: A Strong Lens Model for SPT-CLJ0615-5746, a z=0.972 Cluster

We present a lens model for the cluster SPT-CLJ0615$-$5746, which is the highest redshift ($z=0.972$) system in the Reionization of Lensing Clusters Survey (RELICS), making it the highest redshift cluster for which a full strong lens model is published. We identify three systems of multiply-imaged lensed galaxies, two of which we spectroscopically confirm at $z=1.358$ and $z=4.013$, which we use as constraints for the model. We find a foreground structure at $z\sim0.4$, which we include as a second cluster-sized halo in one of our models; however two different statistical tests find the best-fit model consists of one cluster-sized halo combined with three individually optimized galaxy-sized halos, as well as contributions from the cluster galaxies themselves. We find the total projected mass density within $r=26.7"$ (the region where the strong lensing constraints exist) to be $M=2.51^{+0.15}_{-0.09}\times 10^{14}$~M$_{\odot}$. If we extrapolate out to $r_{500}$, our projected mass density is consistent with the mass inferred from weak lensing and from the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect ($M\sim10^{15}$~M$_{\odot}$). This cluster is lensing a previously reported $z\sim10$ galaxy, which, if spectroscopically confirmed, will be the highest-redshift strongly lensed galaxy known.

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arXiv2018

Mass Modeling of Frontier Fields Cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 Using Strong and Weak Lensing

We present a gravitational lensing model of MACS J1149.5+2223 using ultra-deep Hubble Frontier Fields imaging data and spectroscopic redshifts from HST grism and VLT/MUSE spectroscopic data. We create total mass maps using 38 multiple images (13 sources) and 608 weak lensing galaxies, as well as 100 multiple images of 31 star-forming regions in the galaxy that hosts Supernova Refsdal. We find good agreement with a range of recent models within the HST field of view. We present a map of the ratio of projected stellar mass to total mass ($f_{\star}$), and find that the stellar mass fraction for this cluster peaks on the primary BCG. Averaging within a radius of 0.3 Mpc, we obtain a value of $\langle f_{\star} \rangle = 0.012^{+0.004}_{-0.003}$, consistent with other recent results for this ratio in cluster environments, though with a large global error (up to $δf_{\star} = 0.005$) primarily due to the choice of an IMF. We compare values of $f_{\star}$ and measures of star formation efficiency for this cluster to other Hubble Frontier Fields clusters studied in the literature, finding that MACS1149 has a higher stellar mass fraction than these other clusters, but a star formation efficiency typical of massive clusters.

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arXiv2018

Calibration of colour gradient bias in shear measurement using HST/CANDELS data

Accurate shape measurements are essential to infer cosmological parameters from large area weak gravitational lensing studies. The compact diffraction-limited point-spread function (PSF) in space-based observations is greatly beneficial, but its chromaticity for a broad band observation can lead to new subtle effects that could hitherto be ignored: the PSF of a galaxy is no longer uniquely defined and spatial variations in the colours of galaxies result in biases in the inferred lensing signal. Taking Euclid as a reference, we show that this colourgradient bias (CG bias) can be quantified with high accuracy using available multi-colour Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data. In particular we study how noise in the HST observations might impact such measurements and find this to be negligible. We determine the CG bias using HST observations in the F606W and F814W filters and observe a correlation with the colour, in line with expectations, whereas the dependence with redshift is weak. The biases for individual galaxies are generally well below 1%, which may be reduced further using morphological information from the Euclid data. Our results demonstrate that CG bias should not be ignored, but it is possible to determine its amplitude with sufficient precision, so that it will not significantly bias the weak lensing measurements using Euclid data.

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arXiv2018

Precise weak lensing constraints from deep high-resolution $K_\mathrm{s}$ images: VLT/HAWK-I analysis of the super-massive galaxy cluster RCS2$J$232727.7$-$020437 at $z=0.70$

We demonstrate that deep good-seeing VLT/HAWK-I $K_\mathrm{s}$ images complemented with $g$+$z$-band photometry can yield a sensitivity for weak lensing studies of massive galaxy clusters at redshifts \mbox{$0.7\lesssim z \lesssim 1.1$}, which is almost identical to the sensitivity of HST/ACS mosaics of single-orbit depth. Key reasons for this good performance are the excellent image quality frequently achievable for $K_\mathrm{s}$ imaging from the ground, a highly effective photometric selection of background galaxies, and a galaxy ellipticity dispersion that is noticeably lower than for optically observed high-redshift galaxy samples. Incorporating results from the 3D-HST and UltraVISTA surveys we also obtained a more accurate calibration of the source redshift distribution than previously achieved for similar optical weak lensing data sets. Here we studied the extremely massive galaxy cluster RCS2$J$232727.7$-$020437 (\mbox{$z=0.699$}), combining deep VLT/\mbox{HAWK-I} $K_\mathrm{s}$ images (point spread function with a 0\farcs35 full width at half maximum) with LBT/LBC photometry. The resulting weak lensing mass reconstruction suggests that the cluster consists of a single overdensity, which is detected with a peak significance of $10.1σ$. We constrained the cluster mass to \mbox{$M_\mathrm{200c}/(10^{15} \mathrm{M}_\odot) =2.06^{+0.28}_{-0.26}(\mathrm{stat.})\pm 0.12 (\mathrm{sys.})$} assuming a spherical Navarro, Frenk \& White model and simulation-based priors on the concentration, making it one of the most massive galaxy clusters known in the \mbox{$z\gtrsim 0.7$} Universe. We also cross-checked the HAWK-I measurements through an analysis of overlapping HST/ACS images, yielding fully consistent estimates of the lensing signal.

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arXiv2017

Scientific Synergy Between LSST and Euclid

Euclid and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) are poised to dramatically change the astronomy landscape early in the next decade. The combination of high cadence, deep, wide-field optical photometry from LSST with high resolution, wide-field optical photometry and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy from Euclid will be powerful for addressing a wide range of astrophysical questions. We explore Euclid/LSST synergy, ignoring the political issues associated with data access to focus on the scientific, technical, and financial benefits of coordination. We focus primarily on dark energy cosmology, but also discuss galaxy evolution, transient objects, solar system science, and galaxy cluster studies. We concentrate on synergies that require coordination in cadence or survey overlap, or would benefit from pixel-level co-processing that is beyond the scope of what is currently planned, rather than scientific programs that could be accomplished only at the catalog level without coordination in data processing or survey strategies. We provide two quantitative examples of scientific synergies: the decrease in photo-z errors (benefitting many science cases) when high resolution Euclid data are used for LSST photo-z determination, and the resulting increase in weak lensing signal-to-noise ratio from smaller photo-z errors. We briefly discuss other areas of coordination, including high performance computing resources and calibration data. Finally, we address concerns about the loss of independence and potential cross-checks between the two missions and potential consequences of not collaborating.

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arXiv2017

XMM-Newton X-ray and HST weak gravitational lensing study of the extremely X-ray luminous galaxy cluster ClJ120958.9+495352 ($z=0.902$)

Observations of relaxed, massive and distant clusters can provide important tests of standard cosmological models e.g. using the gas mass fraction. We study the very luminous, high redshift ($z=0.902$) galaxy cluster ClJ120958.9+495352 using XMM-Newton data and measure the temperature profile and cooling time to investigate the dynamical status with respect to the presence of a cool core as well as global cluster properties. We use HST weak lensing data to estimate its total mass and determine the gas mass fraction. We perform a spectral analysis using an XMM-Newton observation of 15ks cleaned exposure time. As the treatment of the background is crucial, we use two different approaches to account for the background emission to verify our results. We account for point-spread-function effects and deproject our results to estimate the gas mass fraction of the cluster. We measure weak lensing galaxy shapes from mosaic HST imaging and select background galaxies photometrically in combination with imaging data from the William Herschel Telescope. The X-ray luminosity of ClJ120958.9+495352 in the 0.1-2.4keV band estimated from our XMM-Newton data is $L_X = (13.4_{-1.0}^{+1.2})\times10^{44}$erg/s and thus it is one of the most X-ray luminous clusters known at similarly high redshift. We find clear indications for the presence of a cool core from the temperature profile and the central cooling time, which is very rare at such high redshifts. Based on the weak lensing analysis we estimate a cluster mass of $M_\mathrm{500}/10^{14}M_\odot=4.4^{+2.2}_{-2.0}(\mathrm{stat.})\pm0.6(\mathrm{sys.})$ and a gas mass fraction of $f_\mathrm{gas,2500} = 0.11_{-0.03}^{+0.06}$ in good agreement with previous findings for high redshift and local clusters.

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arXiv2017

The effect of the environment on the structure, morphology and star-formation history of intermediate-redshift galaxies

With the aim of understanding the effect of the environment on the star formation history and morphological transformation of galaxies, we present a detailed analysis of the colour, morphology and internal structure of cluster and field galaxies at $0.4 \le z \le 0.8$. We use {\em HST} data for over 500 galaxies from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS) to quantify how the galaxies' light distribution deviate from symmetric smooth profiles. We visually inspect the galaxies' images to identify the likely causes for such deviations. We find that the residual flux fraction ($RFF$), which measures the fractional contribution to the galaxy light of the residuals left after subtracting a symmetric and smooth model, is very sensitive to the degree of structural disturbance but not the causes of such disturbance. On the other hand, the asymmetry of these residuals ($A_{\rm res}$) is more sensitive to the causes of the disturbance, with merging galaxies having the highest values of $A_{\rm res}$. Using these quantitative parameters we find that, at a fixed morphology, cluster and field galaxies show statistically similar degrees of disturbance. However, there is a higher fraction of symmetric and passive spirals in the cluster than in the field. These galaxies have smoother light distributions than their star-forming counterparts. We also find that while almost all field and cluster S0s appear undisturbed, there is a relatively small population of star-forming S0s in clusters but not in the field. These findings are consistent with relatively gentle environmental processes acting on galaxies infalling onto clusters.

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arXiv2017

Halo ellipticity of GAMA galaxy groups from KiDS weak lensing

We constrain the average halo ellipticity of ~2 600 galaxy groups from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, using the weak gravitational lensing signal measured from the overlapping Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS). To do so, we quantify the azimuthal dependence of the stacked lensing signal around seven different proxies for the orientation of the dark matter distribution, as it is a priori unknown which one traces the orientation best. On small scales, the major axis of the brightest group/cluster member (BCG) provides the best proxy, leading to a clear detection of an anisotropic signal. In order to relate that to a halo ellipticity, we have to adopt a model density profile. We derive new expressions for the quadrupole moments of the shear field given an elliptical model surface mass density profile. Modeling the signal with an elliptical Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile on scales < 250 kpc, which roughly corresponds to half the virial radius, and assuming that the BCG is perfectly aligned with the dark matter, we find an average halo ellipticity of e_h=0.38 +/- 0.12. This agrees well with results from cold-dark-matter-only simulations, which typically report values of e_h ~ 0.3. On larger scales, the lensing signal around the BCGs does not trace the dark matter distribution well, and the distribution of group satellites provides a better proxy for the halo's orientation instead, leading to a 3--4 sigma detection of a non-zero halo ellipticity at scales between 250 kpc and 750 kpc. Our results suggest that the distribution of stars enclosed within a certain radius forms a good proxy for the orientation of the dark matter within that radius, which has also been observed in hydrodynamical simulations.

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arXiv2017

Spectroscopic confirmation of an ultra-faint galaxy at the epoch of reionization

Within one billion years of the Big Bang, intergalactic hydrogen was ionized by sources emitting ultraviolet and higher energy photons. This was the final phenomenon to globally affect all the baryons (visible matter) in the Universe. It is referred to as cosmic reionization and is an integral component of cosmology. It is broadly expected that intrinsically faint galaxies were the primary ionizing sources due to their abundance in this epoch. However, at the highest redshifts ($z>7.5$; lookback time 13.1 Gyr), all galaxies with spectroscopic confirmations to date are intrinsically bright and, therefore, not necessarily representative of the general population. Here, we report the unequivocal spectroscopic detection of a low luminosity galaxy at $z>7.5$. We detected the Lyman-$α$ emission line at $\sim 10504$ Å in two separate observations with MOSFIRE on the Keck I Telescope and independently with the Hubble Space Telescope's slit-less grism spectrograph, implying a source redshift of $z = 7.640 \pm 0.001$. The galaxy is gravitationally magnified by the massive galaxy cluster MACS J1423.8+2404 ($z = 0.545$), with an estimated intrinsic luminosity of $M_{AB} = -19.6 \pm 0.2$ mag and a stellar mass of $M_{\star} = 3.0^{+1.5}_{-0.8} \times 10^8$ solar masses. Both are an order of magnitude lower than the four other Lyman-$α$ emitters currently known at $z > 7.5$, making it probably the most distant representative source of reionization found to date.

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arXiv2016

The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). VI. Comparing the Mass and Light in MACSJ0416.1-2403 using Frontier Field imaging and GLASS spectroscopy

We present a strong and weak gravitational lens model of the galaxy cluster MACSJ0416.1-2403, constrained using spectroscopy from the Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS) and Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) imaging data. We search for emission lines in known multiply imaged sources in the GLASS spectra, obtaining secure spectroscopic redshifts of 31 multiple images belonging to 16 distinct source galaxies. The GLASS spectra provide the first spectroscopic measurements for 6 of the source galaxies. The weak lensing signal is acquired from 884 galaxies in the F606W HFF image. By combining the weak lensing constraints with 15 multiple image systems with spectroscopic redshifts and 9 multiple image systems with photometric redshifts, we reconstruct the gravitational potential of the cluster on an adaptive grid. The resulting total mass density map is compared with a stellar mass density map obtained from the deep Spitzer Frontier Fields imaging data to study the relative distribution of stellar and total mass in the cluster. We find that the projected stellar mass to total mass ratio, $f_{\star}$, varies considerably with the stellar surface mass density. The mean projected stellar mass to total mass ratio is $\langle f_{\star} \rangle= 0.009 \pm 0.003 $ (stat.), but with a systematic error as large as $0.004-0.005$, dominated by the choice of the IMF. We find agreement with several recent measurements of $f_{\star}$ in massive cluster environments. The lensing maps of convergence, shear, and magnification are made available to the broader community in the standard HFF format.

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arXiv2016

Spitzer UltRa Faint SUrvey Program (SURFS UP). II. IRAC-Detected Lyman-Break Galaxies at 6 < z < 10 Behind Strong-Lensing Clusters

We study the stellar population properties of the IRAC-detected $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$ galaxy candidates from the Spitzer UltRa Faint SUrvey Program (SURFS UP). Using the Lyman Break selection technique, we find a total of 16 new galaxy candidates at $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$ with $S/N \geq 3$ in at least one of the IRAC $3.6μ$m and $4.5μ$m bands. According to the best mass models available for the surveyed galaxy clusters, these IRAC-detected galaxy candidates are magnified by factors of $\sim 1.2$--$5.5$. We find that the IRAC-detected $6 \lesssim z \lesssim 10$ sample is likely not a homogeneous galaxy population: some are relatively massive (stellar mass as high as $4 \times 10^9\,M_{\odot}$) and evolved (age $\lesssim 500$ Myr) galaxies, while others are less massive ($M_{\text{stellar}}\sim 10^8\,M_{\odot}$) and very young ($\sim 10$ Myr) galaxies with strong nebular emission lines that boost their rest-frame optical fluxes. We identify two Ly$α$ emitters in our sample from the Keck DEIMOS spectra, one at $z_{\text{Ly}α}=6.76$ (in RXJ1347) and one at $z_{\text{Ly}α}=6.32$ (in MACS0454). We show that IRAC $[3.6]-[4.5]$ color, when combined with photometric redshift, can be used to identify galaxies likely with strong nebular emission lines within certain redshift windows.

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