Source-plane Reconstruction Research Articles

The Cosmic Telescope That Lenses the Sunburst Arc, PSZ1 G311.65–18.48: Strong Gravitational Lensing Model and Source Plane Analysis* *Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programs GO-15101,

We present a strong-lensing analysis of the cluster PSZ1 G311.65−18.48, based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging, archival VLT/MUSE spectroscopy, and Chandra X-ray data. This cool-core cluster (z = 0.443) lenses the brightest lensed galaxy known, dubbed the “Sunburst Arc” (z = 2.3703), a Lyman continuum (LyC) emitting galaxy multiply imaged 12 times. We identify in this field 14 additional strongly lensed galaxies to constrain a strong-lens model and report secure spectroscopic redshifts of four of them. We measure a projected cluster core mass of M(<250 kpc) = M ⊙. The two least magnified but complete images of the Sunburst Arc’s source galaxy are magnified by ∼13×, while the LyC clump is magnified by ∼4–80×. We present time delay predictions and conclusive evidence that a discrepant clump in the Sunburst Arc, previously claimed to be a transient, is not variable, thus strengthening the hypothesis that it results from an exceptionally high magnification. A source plane reconstruction and analysis of the Sunburst Arc finds its physical size to be 1 × 2 kpc and that it is resolved in three distinct directions in the source plane, 0°, 40°, and 75° (east of north). We place an upper limit of r ≲ 50 pc on the source plane size of unresolved clumps and r ≲ 32 pc for the LyC clump. Finally, we report that the Sunburst Arc is likely in a system of two or more galaxies separated by ≲6 kpc in projection. Their interaction may drive star formation and could play a role in the mechanism responsible for the leaking LyC radiation.

Central concentration of warm and dense molecular gas in a strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy at z = 6

Abstract We report the detection of the CO(12–11) line emission toward G09-83808 (or H-ATLAS J090045.4+004125), a strongly-lensed submillimeter galaxy at z = 6.02, with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations. Combining previously detected [O iii] 88 μm, [N ii] 205 μm, and dust continuum at 0.6 mm and 1.5 mm, we investigate the physical properties of the multi-phase interstellar medium in G09-83808. A source-plane reconstruction reveals that the region of the CO(12–11) emission is compact ($R_\mathrm{{e, CO}}=0.49^{+0.29}_{-0.19}\:\mbox{kpc}$) and roughly coincides with that of the dust continuum. Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer modeling of CO spectral-line energy distribution reveals that most of the CO(12–11) emission comes from a warm (kinetic temperature of Tkin = 320 ± 170 K) and dense [log (nH2/cm−3) = 5.4 ± 0.6] gas, indicating that the warm and dense molecular gas is concentrated in the central 0.5 kpc region. The luminosity ratio in G09-83808 is estimated to be LCO(12-11)/LCO(6-5) = 1.1 ± 0.2. The high ratio is consistent with those in local active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and 6 &amp;lt; z &amp;lt; 7 quasars, the fact of which implies that G09-83808 would be a good target to explore dust-obscured AGNs in the epoch of reionization. In the reconstructed [O iii] 88 μm and [N ii] 205 μm cubes, we also find that a monotonic velocity gradient is extending over the central starburst region by a factor of 2 and that star-forming sub-components exist. High-resolution observations of bright [C ii] 158 μm line emissions will enable us to characterize the kinematics of a possible rotating disk and the nature of the sub-components.

Imaging the molecular interstellar medium in a gravitationally lensed star-forming galaxy at z = 5.7

Aims. We present and study spatially resolved imaging obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of multiple 12CO(J = 6 − 5, 8−7, and 9−8) and two H2O(202−111 and 211−202) emission lines and cold dust continuum toward the gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxy SPT 0346-52 at z = 5.656. Methods. Using a visibility-domain source-plane reconstruction we probe the structure and dynamics of the different components of the interstellar medium (ISM) in this galaxy down to scales of 1 kpc in the source plane. Results. Measurements of the intrinsic sizes of the different CO emission lines indicate that the higher J transitions trace more compact regions in the galaxy. Similarly, we find smaller dust continuum intrinsic sizes with decreasing wavelength, based on observations at rest frame 130, 300, and 450 μm. The source shows significant velocity structure, and clear asymmetry where an elongated structure is observed in the source plane with significant variations in their reconstructed sizes. This could be attributed to a compact merger or turbulent disk rotation. The differences in velocity structure through the different line tracers, however, hint at the former scenario in agreement with previous [CII] line imaging results. Measurements of the CO line ratios and magnifications yield significant variations as a function of velocity, suggesting that modeling of the ISM using integrated values could be misinterpreted. Modeling of the ISM in SPT 0346-52 based on delensed fluxes indicates a highly dense and warm medium, qualitatively similar to that observed in high-redshift quasar hosts.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: CO(J = 3 – 2) Mapping and Lens Modeling of an ACT-selected Dusty Star-forming Galaxy

Abstract We report Northern Extended Millimeter Array CO(J = 3 − 2) observations of the dusty star-forming galaxy ACT-S J020941+001557 at z = 2.5528, which was detected as an unresolved source in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) equatorial survey. Our spatially resolved spectral line data support the derivation of a gravitational lens model from 37 independent velocity channel maps using a pixel-based algorithm, from which we infer a velocity-dependent magnification factor μ ≈ 7–22 with a luminosity-weighted mean . The resulting source-plane reconstruction is consistent with a rotating disk, although other scenarios cannot be ruled out by our data. After correction for lensing, we derive a line luminosity , a cold gas mass , a dynamical mass , and a gas mass fraction . The line brightness temperature ratio of r 3,1 ≈ 1.6 relative to a Green Bank Telescope CO(J = 1 − 0) detection may be elevated by a combination of external heating of molecular clouds, differential lensing, and/or pointing errors.

High-resolution spatial analysis of a z ∼ 2 lensed galaxy using adaptive coadded source-plane reconstruction

We present spatially resolved analysis of a lensed galaxy, SDSS1958+5950 at $z = 2.225$, from the Cambridge Sloan Survey of Wide Arcs in the Sky (CASSOWARY). We use our new high resolution imaging data to construct a robust lens model for the galaxy group at $z = 0.214$. We employ the updated lens model to combine the Integral Field Spectrographic observations on two highly distorted images of the lensed target. We adopt a forward-modeling approach to deconvolve the effects of point spread function from the combined source-plane reconstruction. The approach is adapted to the lens model magnification and enables a resolution of $\sim$170 pc in the galaxy-source plane. We propose an ongoing merger as the origin of the lensed system on the basis of its source-plane morphology, kinematics and rest-frame emission line ratios. Using our novel technique of adaptive coadded source plane reconstruction, we are able to detect different components in the velocity gradient that were not seen in previous studies of this object, plausibly belonging to different components in the merging system.

THE GINI COEFFICIENT AS A MORPHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT OF STRONGLY LENSED GALAXIES IN THE IMAGE PLANE

ABSTRACT Characterization of the morphology of strongly lensed galaxies is challenging because images of such galaxies are typically highly distorted. Lens modeling and source plane reconstruction is one approach that can provide reasonably undistorted images from which morphological measurements can be made, though at the expense of a highly spatially variable telescope point-spread function (PSF) when mapped back to the source plane. Unfortunately, modeling the lensing mass is a time- and resource-intensive process, and in many cases there are too few constraints to precisely model the lensing mass. If, however, useful morphological measurements could be made in the image plane rather than the source plane, it would bypass this issue and obviate the need for a source reconstruction process for some applications. We examine the use of the Gini coefficient as one such measurement. Because it depends on the cumulative distribution of the light of a galaxy, but not the relative spatial positions, the fact that surface brightness is conserved by lensing means that the Gini coefficient may be well preserved by strong gravitational lensing. Through simulations, we test the extent to which the Gini coefficient is conserved, including by effects due to PSF convolution and pixelization, to determine whether it is invariant enough under lensing to be used as a measurement of galaxy morphology that can be made in the image plane.

MULTI-WAVELENGTH LENS RECONSTRUCTION OF A PLANCK AND HERSCHEL-DETECTED STAR-BURSTING GALAXY

ABSTRACT We present a source-plane reconstruction of a Herschel and Planck-detected gravitationally lensed dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) at z = 1.68 using Hubble, Submillimeter Array (SMA), and Keck observations. The background submillimeter galaxy (SMG) is strongly lensed by a foreground galaxy cluster at z = 0.997 and appears as an arc with a length of ∼15″ in the optical images. The continuum dust emission, as seen by SMA, is limited to a single knot within this arc. We present a lens model with source-plane reconstructions at several wavelengths to show the difference in magnification between the stars and dust, and highlight the importance of multi-wavelength lens models for studies involving lensed DSFGs. We estimate the physical properties of the galaxy by fitting the flux densities to model spectral energy distributions leading to a magnification-corrected star-formation rate (SFR) of 390 ± 60 M yr−1 and a stellar mass of . These values are consistent with high-redshift massive galaxies that have formed most of their stars already. The estimated gas-to-baryon fraction, molecular gas surface density, and SFR surface density have values of 0.43 ± 0.13, 350 ± 200 pc−2, and M yr−1 kpc−2, respectively. The ratio of SFR surface density to molecular gas surface density puts this among the most star-forming systems, similar to other measured SMGs and local ULIRGs.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: BRIGHT, HIGHLY MAGNIFIED GALAXY CANDIDATES ATz∼ 7 BEHIND A1703

We report the discovery of seven strongly lensed Lyman break galaxy (LBG) candidates at z~7 detected in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) imaging of Abell 1703. The brightest candidate, called A1703-zD1, has an observed (lensed) magnitude of 24.0 AB (26 sigma) in the WFC3/IR F160W band, making it 0.2 magnitudes brighter than the z_850-dropout candidate recently reported behind the Bullet Cluster and 0.7 magnitudes brighter than the previously brightest known z~7.6 galaxy, A1689-zD1. With a cluster magnification of ~9, this source has an intrinsic magnitude of H_160 = 26.4 AB, a strong z_850 - J_125 break of 1.7 magnitudes, and a photometric redshift of z~6.7. Additionally, we find six other bright LBG candidates with H_160 band magnitudes of 24.9-26.4, photometric redshifts z~6.4 - 8.8, and magnifications mu~3-40. Stellar population fits to the ACS, WFC3/IR, and \Spitzer/IRAC data for A1703-zD1 and A1703-zD4 yield stellar masses (0.7 - 3.0) x 10^{9} M_sun, stellar ages 5-180 Myr, and star-formation rates ~7.8 M_sun/yr, and low reddening with A_V <= 0.7. The source-plane reconstruction of the exceptionally bright candidate A1703-zD1 exhibits an extended structure, spanning ~4 kpc in the z~6.7 source plane, and shows three resolved star-forming knots of radius r~0.4 kpc.

Galaxies under the Cosmic Microscope: A Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph Study of Lensed Disk Galaxy 289 in A2218

In this paper, we exploit the gravitational potential of the rich cluster A2218 as a magnifying glass. We demonstrate that the magnification due to the cluster allows us to observe distant background galaxies at a comparable level of detail to galaxies at z ~ 0.1. Using the Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph (GMOS) integral field unit (IFU) on Gemini North, we observed the spatially resolved [O II] λ3727 emission line spectrum for a lensed disk galaxy at z = 1.034. Using a detailed model for the cluster mass distribution, we are able to correct for the lensing by the cluster and reconstruct the source morphology. We find that the overall magnification is a factor of 4.92 ± 0.15, and the rest-frame absolute I-band magnitude is M = -22.4 ± 0.2, where the error bars include conservative estimates of the uncertainty in the source-plane reconstruction. The inclination-corrected circular velocity is 206 ± 18 km s -1. The galaxy lies very close to the mean Tully-Fisher relation of present-day spirals. Although our results are based on a single object, they demonstrate that gravitational lensing can be viably used to make detailed studies of the evolution of the structure of distant field galaxies.