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1991MNRAS.252...19S 3 123 3 2 1 A statisticallycompletesurveyforarc-likefeaturesinimagesofdistant H. E.Jorgensen I. Small,R.S.Ellis,M.J.Fitchett,H,U.Norgaard-Nielsen,L.Hansenand rich clustersofgalaxies Mon. Not.R.asir.Soc.(1991)252,19-29 UniversityObservatory,Ostervolgáde,Copenhagen DanishSpaceResearchInstitute,Lyngby,Copenhagen DepartmentofPhysics,UniversityDurhamDH13LE Accepted 1991April24.Received23;inoriginalform1990October22 Tyson, Valdes&Wenk1990)arisefromgravitationallensing of backgroundsources,theirstatisticsmightbeusedtocon- If thearc-likefeaturesseeninlong-exposureimagesof (which isdifficulttoobtainbyothermethods)andthered- moderate redshiftclustersofgalaxies(Fortetal1988; C12244-02 (Lynds&Petrosian1989),whicharesuffi- giant arcs,e.g.thoseinAbell370(Soucailci«/.1988)and arcs asacosmologicaltool. a demonstrationofgravitationallensing,butouraimistouse menon issufficientlynewthatithasbeenregardedlargelyas unobtainable byconventionalspectroscopy.Thearcpheno- strain boththemassdistributioninlensingclusters ciently extendedthattheycannoteasilybeunderstoodas shift distributionofthepopulationfaintfieldgalaxies normal galaxyimages.Althoughthenumberofgiantarcsis small, inthosefewcaseswhere spectroscopyhasbeenpos- 1 INTRODUCTION Fort 1990). Tyson etal1990), wheretheirstrikinglyblue coloursand sible, thelensinghypothesis appears tobeconfirmed(see deep framestakenindifferent passbands(Fortei<2/.1988; Such arcletsareoftenapparent onlyafterthesubtractionof The arcsdetectedfallintotwocategories.First,thereare Secondly, therearethesmaller featurestermed‘arclets’. © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System Using datafromanearliersearchforsupernovaeindistantclusters,wehave SUMMARY constructed ahomogeneoussetofVimagesfor19richclustersmeanredshift the usefulnessofsuchacatalogueforderivingbackgroundsourceredshift lensing ofbackgroundsources.Alist20candidatearcsispresented.Weexamine analysed thedataforextendedarc-likefeatureswhichmightarisefromgravitational ¿ =0.32.Byconsideringtheimagesaboveafixedsurfacebrightnesslimit,wehave tofaintlimits.Weshowhow,inprinciple,alikelihoodratiotestbasedonthe distribution, N{z).Whilstthenumberandshapedistributionofarccandidatesis vides ameansofdeterminingaccurateclustervelocitydispersionsatanyredshift. radial distributionofarcsinasinglewell-studiedclustercoulddeterminewhether consistent withthelensinghypothesis,clustervelocitydispersionsofveryhighpreci- significant fractionofthefaintgalaxypopulationisathighredshift.Thistestalsopro- sion wouldbeneededtoprovideusefulconstraintsonthefractionofhigh- further evidenceofalensingphenomenon.Withoneexcep- orientation withrespecttotheclustercentrearetakenbe tion (theisolatedarcA5inAbell370-Soucailetal1990), firmed. Forexample,asignificantfractionofarcletscouldbe the lensinghypothesis,whilstplausible,isnotstrictlycon- edge-on bluespiralsatanyredshift. spectroscopy isnotyetavailableforthearcletpopulation,so which hasbeensystematically searchedforarcs.Theresult- ments inthecontextofanewsampledeepclusterimages tional sampleprecludeddefinitiveconclusions. of thenaturebackgroundsourcepopulation.These (1989) demonstratedthatforeachgiantarcthereshouldbe field galaxies.Wealsocompare thisstrategyofsurveyinga ing catalogueofcandidatearcs allowsustoexaminetheir articles exploredthevariousprobabilitydistributionsin a newprobeofthemassdistributioninclusterlensesand sizes wouldtestthelensinghypothesisfurther,andmightadd many arcletsandthattheoccurrencerateforarcsofdifferent some detail,buttheabsenceofanywell-definedobserva- potential forconstrainingthe redshiftdistributionoffaint the alternativeapproachwhere thesurfacedensityofback- reasonably largenumberofclusters tomoderatedepthswith ground galaxies israisedtoastatisticallyuseful levelina Our aiminthispaperistoexaminesuchtheoreticalargu- Grossman &Narayan(1988)andNemiroffDekel 19 91MNRAS.252. . .19S -2 20 I.Smalletal. been constructedtomaintainasuniformadetectionlimitfor single clusterviamuchdeeperintegrations(c/.Tysonetal found isconsistentwiththelensinghypothesis,butourclus- strates theirapplicationtooursample.Thenumberofarcs new observationaldatabaseofdistantclusterswhichhas we considertheimplicationsofthisworkandprospective tion forthestatisticaltestswehavedevelopedanddemon- As partoftheDanishdistantsupernovasearch(Hansen, role whicharcsmayplayinfaint-objectcosmology.Wesum- more detailedanalysisofoneorclusters.InSection4 cation andbrieflydiscusshowthiscouldbeappliedtoa that ourcurrentsampleistoodiverseforaneffectiveappli- new techniquewhichmightresolvethisproblembutshow detail beforestrongconstraintscouldbeplacedonthepro- ter propertieswouldneedtobeunderstoodinmuchgreater arcs andarcletsaspossible.Section3discussesthemotiva- in asearchforfaintsupernovae(SNe).SinceTypelasuper- (Abell 1958),itssoutherncounterpart(Abell,Corwin& taken ontheDanish1.5-mtelescopeatLaSilla,Chilefor~ Norgaard-Nielsen &Jorgensen1987;Couchetal1989), marize ourmainconclusionsinSection5. portion offaintgalaxiesbeyondtheclusters.Wedevelopa discovered andtheimplicationsforcosmologySN nova couldoccuratanylunation,limitingmagnitudesofF~ photometric observationsoftheclustersatdifferentepochs logue (Couchetal1990).Theprincipalaimwastocompare Olowin 1989)andthesouthernAAOdistantclusercata- many VCCDframesofaverageexposuretime~1hrwere those whoseseeingmatchedmostcloselythecurrentcon- varied. IntheSNsearch,newframeswerecomparedwith rate. OverthemanyrunsatLaSilla,observingconditions Norgaard-Nielsen etal(1989)discussthefaintSNe 60 clusterswithredshifts0.24hr.The19clustersthat can reliablyreachalimitingsurface brightnessoï/¿y~26.0 determined thata4-hrVintegration intypicalconditions extended object.Fromphotometryinseveralclusters,we that, providedtheframeswererestrictedtothosewith detection ofthearcletA5(Soucailetal1990).Wefound cluster Abell370(Plates1and2,Fig.1),testingforthe comparison. one imageusingfiducialstarsascalibratorspriortoeventual matches werethenallowedforbyrescalingandsmoothing mag arcsec. scope wassecured,thearcletcouldbereadilydetectedasan measured seeing<1.5arcsecFWHMandthataneffective arcs, weregisteredandmedianfilteredseveralframesofthe 1987-89. ClusterswereselectedfromtheAbellcatalogue A planofthepaperfollows.InSection2wedescribea As atrialapplicationoftheDanishframesforfindingfaint Our clustersampleforthisstudy consists,therefore,of © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System 2 with 1pixel=0.47arcsec. /¿j/=26.0 magarcsecandthearcletA5.Thescaleisinpixels, Figure 1.ContourmapofPlate2,showingalowestisophote o Table 1.Danishclustercatalogue. AC 122 J2183.27TL Abell 222 AC118 J2001.21C 0346-45 J2175.23C Cluster J1834.2TC J2090.7CL Abell 1942 J1836.14RC J1836.23T AC103 AC106 AC113 Abell 2397 1141-28 AC114 RA (1950)DecRedshiftExposure(hrs) 00 1148 03 3108 02 3720 01 3504 05 1214 04 0054 03 4649 03 4537 20 5245 20 0600 22 5600 22 5043 21 5337 10 0212 13 4111 13 4035 11 4140 10 4214 14 3555 A370(V) 5HRMEDIAN -13 1448 -30 4200 -28 1824 -07 0612 -48 2154 -27 2049 -45 2430 -34 46 -39 1649 -01 4751 -64 5122 -53 1850 -00 1546 -33 5927 -35 0444 00 1320 00 1412 03 5224 01 0832 0.38 0.38 0.42 0.21 0.33 0.28 0.43 0.37 0.21 0.31 0.42 0.54 0.24 0.22 0.28 0.24 0.31 0.31 0.22 1991MNRAS.252...19S Plate 1.Plates1and2showexamplesoftheco-additionDanish CCDframestakenatdifferentepochs.Single1-hrexposure. © Royal Astronomical Society •Provided bytheNASA Astrophysics Data System A370(V) 1hrRaw 19 91MNRAS.252. . .19S © Royal Astronomical Society •Provided bytheNASA Astrophysics Data System A570(V) 5hrMedian 1991MNRAS.252...19S arcsec. (d) Abell222and(e)2397. ThearcIDscorespondtothosegiveninTable2.Northisupand eastisleft.Thescalebarsrepresent10 Plate 3.Examplesofcandidatearcs infiveclustersprocessedaccordingtothepreceptsofSection 2:(a)AC118,(b)Abell1942,(c)114, © Royal Astronomical Society •Provided bytheNASA Astrophysics Data System 19 91MNRAS.252. . .19S © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System 19 91MNRAS.252. . .19S -1 -1 2 -2 2 dispersion intherestframeisa=1483±566kms, from theiropticalcontrastagainstthebackgroundat The typicalrichnessofaclusterenteringthissubsetthe The individualVframeswerefirstregisteredbyageneral- weaker thanComa,sothemeanisreducedslightly.Overall, slightly inexcessofthatforComa.Therichnessesthe Velocity dispersionsareavailableforthreeofthesixsouth- Abell clustersarealldistance6,richnessclass1clusters, (z) =0.32±0.09. (cr ~800-1000kms)atameanredshiftof of Couch&Sharpies(1988).Forthesethemeanline-of-sight Silla during1987-89. is statisticallyequivalentto19clusterscomparableComa it seemsreasonableatthisstagetoconcludethatthesample known redshift(cf.Couchetal.1990).Severaloftheseare seven AAOclusters(Jsequencenumbers)canbeestimated ern Abelletal.clustersfromtheextensivefibrespectroscopy none hasareliablevelocitydispersionorX-rayluminosity. comparable toorexceedingComainrichness.However, mately fromthesourcematerialforclusters.Thefour supernova searchclustersamplecanbecalculatedapproxi- frames of1.5-arcsecseeingwilloccupy~10arcsec,we in thefigure,clearlyemerges. centres donotalignperfectlybutthecommonfieldisatleast deep imagefreefromcosmicraysanddefects.Theframe ized rotationusingthefiducialpositionsoftypicallysevento image andasingle1-hrintegrationarecomparedatthesame addition isillustratedinFig.1whereboththefinalAbell370 sky count,stackedandmedianfilteredtoproduceasingle choose tocutallcombinedframesatathresholdof2the might varyfromframetoframe.Sincethesmallestarcwith searched forarc-likefeatures,weneedtodefineaself-con- 2.2 HomogeneityoftheCCDsurvey useful forourpurposes.Ofcourse,byvirtueofaveragingat This cannotbeeliminatedentirelywithoutaccuratephoto- per centofthebackgroundsky. sky brightnessonthesescales:thiscorrespondstypicallyto1 an axialratioof,say,a/b>2thatwecanhopetorecognizein sistent limitingsurfacebrightnessvalueanddiscusshowthis 2cr thresholdofthebackgroundsky.ThearcletA5,labelled brightness thatcorresponds to aconstantsignal-to-noise sky brightnesswillapproachtheoverallaveragevalueatLa least fourframestakenatdifferenttimesforeachcluster,the ing surfacebrightnessissmallenoughforthecataloguetobe Nevertheless, wedemonstratethatthevariationinlimit- checked forthreeclusterscontaining goodVphotometric meridian, implyaspreadofless than0.15maginthesurface per centwhich,togetherwith airmassdifferencesonthe metric zeropointswhicharenotavailableineverycluster. the varyingnightskybrightnessanddifferenceintotalexpo- zero points(A1942,A370and AC118)andtheseconfirma ratio. Theabsolutevalueof theskybrightnesscanbe limiting surfacebrightnesscutvariesfromclustertocluster. sure timefromoneclustertoanotherwillensurethatsuch a 0 10 .Theresampledimageswerescaledtothesametotal mean skyvalue of=21.0±0.3magarcsec . Wetakethis 0 ~ 2x3arcmininallclusters.Thegaindepthbythisco- Before describinghowtheco-addedclusterframesare The meanexposuretimeof6.4hrhasalascatter~20 Although theclusterswerealwaysobservedindarktime, © Royal Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System axis iselongatedalongthenormaltolinejoining equals theundistortedradiusofgalaxy,andmajor mal cluster,anintrinsicallycircularbackgroundsource angular separationofthesourceandlens,0.Foranisother- (1989) showedindetailhowlensingelongatesanimageby Both Grossman&Narayan(1988)andNemiroffDekel lensed image,andtheangulardistance,d,ofarccandi- crucial toanystatisticalanalysis:theaxialratioA=a/bof appears elongatedsuchthattheminoraxisofimage sight velocitydispersion,a,insimplecases),andthetrue z), thelensmass(whichcanberepresentedbyline-of- an amountthatdependsonthesourceandlensdistances(z, date fromtheclustercentre(whichwillusuallybequotedin source andlenscentre.Twoobservationalparametersare Lavery &Henry1988).Secondly,byexaminingtheframes the skylevel(asdiscussedinSection2.2)andexaminedvisu- arcsec). during thesameperiod.Insummary,therefore,bycuttingat range asrepresentativeofthe15otherclustersobserved using theestimatedopticalcentreofcluster(ineverycase of defectsorweakfeatures. Finally, inconfusingsituationstheframescanbereadily visually, thecurvatureofarcscanalsobeassessed. centres wherearcshaveoftenbeenfound(e.g.Abell963, crowded fieldsandextensiveenvelopesnearthecluster more appropriatethananautomaticimageanalysisfor 2.3 Identifîcationofarccandidates was doneafterselection.SinceAbell370includedinthe the brightestmember),butitshouldbeemphasizedthatthis given inTable2.Inthislist,theradiusvectoriscalculated pushed toalowerthresholdclarifytherealityorotherwise several reasons.First,suchalgorithmsarenotsuitableforthe ally forobjectswithaxialratiosA>2.Thiswasdeemed survey shouldmaintainastrictsurfacebrightnesslimitof 2 aofthemedianskyvalueacrossco-addedimage,our S c cl cl s Each processedframewascutatathresholdof2above The completelistofcandidatearcsandtheirparametersis -2 26.0 ±0.3magarcsec. Table 2.Arccatalogue(/I>2). AC113 A1942 A1942 A1942 J2090-7CL A370 AC 114 AC114 AC113 AC113 A2397 J2090-7CL J2183-27T A370 A222 A222 AC114 AC118 AC118 AC 118 Cluster RedshiftArcIDAd\(arcsec) Arc-like featuresindistantclusters21 1 Radiusfromcluster centre. 0.22 0.38 0.38 0.22 0.22 0.24 0.22 0.22 0.28 0.37 0.37 0.21 0.21 0.31 0.31 0.31 0.22 0.31 0.31 0.31 A1942-3 A1942-2 A1942-1 J2090-2 J2090-1 J2183-1 A370-2 A370-1 A222-2 AC 114-1 AC 113-2 AC 113-1 A2387-1 A222-1 AC 118-3 AC 118-2 AC 114-3 AC 114-2 AC 113-3 AC 118-1 12.3 2.3 2.2 4.0 4.7 4.6 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.0 3.0 2.7 2.6 3.6 4.1 2.3 2.6 2.2 2.5 2.9 63.7 26.3 32.4 23.2 55.4 61.9 25.8 27.1 25.3 30.5 21.4 14.6 14.1 12.2 10.9 13.7 3.1 6.1 8.1 5.1 19 91MNRAS.252. . .19S 5 -2 22 /.Smailetal. besides A370,containthearccandidateswithlargest arc, weconsideritappropriatetoincludethisclusterinthe Danish SNsearchwithoutanyregardforitsspectaculargiant vector, itisclearthatsomearenot.Thesecouldbespurious distortions (A>3.5).Whilstthemajorityofcandidates sample. detections, orcaseswherethesymmetryofcluster are, infact,approximatelynormaltotheclusterradius few innumberandconsequentlytheirmeandepthcannot potential isfarfromcircularorelliptical. these arcsareinprogress,atopticalandinfraredwave- A ATprimefocusbjplatescannedbytheCOSMOS contamination rateinoursamplehasbeenestimatedby match thatoftheprimeF-bandmaterial.Furtherstudies images wereoccasionallytakenfortheSNsearch,theyare examine imagesinotherpassbands.AlthoughBandR density ofobjectscomplyingwithourdistortionandsize analysing theellipticitydistributionof10objectsina1 lengths. ForexamplethearcinA1942hasbeendetected we havenotemphasizedtheorientationofarccandi- i.e. 2percentofthoseinTable2.Furtherevidenceforthe criteria forthearcsissuchthatwewouldexpecttofindone machine toalimitingmagnitudeofbj~24.5.Thesurface square degreerandomlychosenfield.Thefieldusedisan dates, themajorityaretangentiallyaligned. lack ofcontaminationisgivenbythefactthat,eventhough mag arcsecwouldgiveoneinterloperinevery40clusters, number countstooursurfacebrightnesslimitofju=26 edge-on interloperinevery200clustersforthislimiting K (Aragon-Salamancaetal,inpreparation).Theexpected Their 58clusterscoveredamuchwiderrangeinredshiftand surface brightness.ExtrapolationusingTyson’s(1988) they pointedoutthatbothofthesearcsoccurinclusterswith clusters, theyfoundonlytwoexamplesofsuchgiantarcs. plete sampleofarccandidateswasthatLynds&Petro- A majorhopewithgravitational lensingisthatthearcstatis- fied above)butisprobablywithinthestatisticaluncertainties. and 02244-02giantarcsthat,duringanexaminationof58 asian (1989)whocommentintheiranalysisoftheAbell370 tions, e.g.about thelensingclustersthemselves. to addressthisquestion,using ournewsampletodemon- of backgroundsources.Inthis sectionwedeveloptechniques tics willprovidenewconstraints ontheredshiftdistribution that oneisseenin«8percentoftheAbellclusters.This with 0.2