arXiv subjects

Zacharias Escalante

Publications and source records attributed to Zacharias Escalante.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

LoVoCCS. III. Third Generation Pipeline & The Hercules Supercluster

The Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS) is a volume-complete survey of over one-hundred nearby ($0.03 < z < 0.12$), X-ray luminous ($L_{500} > 10^{44} \text{ erg s}^{-1}$) galaxy clusters in the southern sky. Observations for the survey concluded in December 2025, reaching Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Year 1-2 depth in each field and providing observations with $\lesssim 1"$ seeing for weak lensing science. In this paper, we present the latest pipeline for reducing observations using the third-generation of the LSST Science Pipelines. We use recent observations of the Hercules Supercluster to validate the pipeline's data-products and conduct an extensive multi-plane weak-lensing analysis of a $\sim 16 \text{ deg}^2$ complex covering Abell 2147, 2151, 2152, and several additional structures. We confirm that the dynamical mass of the complex is biased due to the dynamical state of Abell 2147, which is consistent with being $\sim 0.2-0.4 \text{ Gyr}$ out-of periapsis, and estimate that the total mass of the supercluster is $8.9^{+1.7}_{-1.4} \times 10^{14}~M_{\odot}$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Measurement of the Half-Light Radius for the Tucana Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

We present a new measurement of the half-light radius of the Tucana Dwarf galaxy, based on the combination of wider, deeper imaging conducted as part of the Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS) and HST archival images. We obtain a stellar density profile within the Tucana Dwarf field based on elliptical fitting. After background subtraction, we fit a Sérsic profile to the density profile to obtain the half-light radius. We measure the half-light radius to be $0.89_{-0.02}^{+0.06}$ arcmin, corresponding to a value of $R_{e} = 225.7_{-5.5}^{+14.4}$ pc (95% CL). Given the wider-field observations from LoVoCCS used in this analysis, our measurement of the half-light radius represents a $\sim 10 \%$ increased value from the previous results.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

LoVoCCS. II. Weak Lensing Mass Distributions, Red-Sequence Galaxy Distributions, and Their Alignment with the Brightest Cluster Galaxy in 58 Nearby X-ray-Luminous Galaxy Clusters

The Local Volume Complete Cluster Survey (LoVoCCS) is an on-going program to observe nearly a hundred low-redshift X-ray-luminous galaxy clusters (redshifts $0.03 10^{44}$ erg/s) with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), capturing data in $u,g,r,i,z$ bands with a $5σ$ point source depth of approximately 25-26th AB magnitudes. Here, we map the aperture masses in 58 galaxy cluster fields using weak gravitational lensing. These clusters span a variety of dynamical states, from nearly relaxed to merging systems, and approximately half of them have not been subject to detailed weak lensing analysis before. In each cluster field, we analyze the alignment between the 2D mass distribution described by the aperture mass map, the 2D red-sequence (RS) galaxy distribution, and the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). We find that the orientations of the BCG and the RS distribution are strongly aligned throughout the interiors of the clusters: the median misalignment angle is 19 deg within 2 Mpc. We also observe the alignment between the orientations of the RS distribution and the overall cluster mass distribution (by a median difference of 32 deg within 1 Mpc), although this is constrained by galaxy shape noise and the limitations of our cluster sample size. These types of alignment suggest long-term dynamical evolution within the clusters over cosmic timescales.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

Exploring the High-Mass End of the Stellar Mass Function of Star Forming Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

We present the high-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function using the largest sample to date (5,352) of star-forming galaxies with $M_{\star} > 10^{11} M_{\odot}$ at cosmic noon, $1.5 < z < 3.5$. This sample is uniformly selected across 17.2 deg$^2$ ($\sim$0.44 Gpc$^3$ comoving volume from $1.5 < z < 3.5$), mitigating the effects of cosmic variance and encompassing a wide range of environments. This area, a factor of 10 larger than previous studies, provides robust statistics at the high-mass end. Using multi-wavelength data in the Spitzer/HETDEX Exploratory Large Area (SHELA) footprint we find that the SHELA footprint star-forming galaxy stellar mass function is steeply declining at the high-mass end probing values as high as $\sim$$10^{-4}$ Mpc$^3$/dex and as low as $\sim$5$\times$$10^{-8}$ Mpc$^3$/dex across a stellar mass range of log($M_\star$/$M_\odot$) $\sim$ 11 - 12. We compare our empirical star-forming galaxy stellar mass function at the high mass end to three types of numerical models: hydrodynamical models from IllustrisTNG, abundance matching from the UniverseMachine, and three different semi-analytic models (SAMs; SAG, SAGE, GALACTICUS). At redshifts $1.5 < z < 3.5$ we find that results from IllustrisTNG and abundance matching models agree within a factor of $\sim$2 to 10, however the three SAMs strongly underestimate (up to a factor of 1,000) the number density of massive galaxies. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of galaxy evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗