• Shear Measurement with Poorly Resolved Images

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Weak lensing studies typically require excellent seeing conditions for the purpose of maximizing the number density of well-resolved galaxy images. It is interesting to ask to what extent the seeing size limits the usefulness of the astronomical images in weak lensing. In this work, we study this issue with the data of the DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS), which is a part of the target selection program for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Using the Fourier Quad shear measurement pipeline, we demonstrate that images with relatively poor seeing conditions (around 1.5 arcsec) can still yield accurate shear estimators. We do not find any correlation between systematic shear error and the image resolution.

  • Satellite Content and Halo Mass of Galaxy Clusters: Comparison between Red-Sequence and Halo-based Optical Cluster Finders

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Cluster cosmology depends critically on how the optical clusters are selected from imaging surveys. We compare the conditional luminosity function (CLF) and weak lensing halo masses between two different cluster samples at fixed richness, detected within the same volume ($0.1{<}z{<}0.34$) using the red-sequence and halo-based methods. After calibrating our CLF deprojection method against mock galaxy samples, we measure the 3D CLFs by cross-correlating clusters with SDSS photometric galaxies. As expected, the CLFs of the red-sequence and halo-based finders exhibit redder and bluer populations, respectively. We also find significant shape discrepancies between the two CLFs at the faint end, where the red-sequence clusters show a strong deficit of faint galaxies but a bump at $M_r{\sim}-20.5$, while the halo-based clusters host an increasing number of blue satellites. By comparing the subsamples of clusters that have a match between the two catalogues to those without matches, we discover that the CLF shape depends sensitively on the cluster centroiding. However, the average weak lensing halo mass between the matched and non-matched clusters are roughly consistent with each other in either cluster sample. Since the colour preferences of the two cluster finders are almost orthogonal, such a consistency indicates that the scatter in the mass-richness relation of either cluster sample is close to random. Therefore, while the choice of how optical clusters are identified impacts the satellite content, our result suggests that it should not introduce strong systematics biases in cluster cosmology.

  • Tolerance For the Pixelation Effect in Shear Measurement

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Images taken by space telescopes typically have a superb spatial resolution, but a relatively poor sampling rate due to the finite CCD pixel size. Beyond the Nyquist limit, it becomes uncertain how much the pixelation effect may affect the accuracy of galaxy shape measurement. It is timely to study this issue given that a number of space-based large-scale weak lensing surveys are planned. Using the Fourier_Quad method, we quantify the shear recovery error as a function of the sampling factor Q, i.e., the ratio between the FWHM of the point-spread-function (PSF) and the pixel size of the CCD, for different PSFs and galaxies of different sizes and noise levels. We show that sub-percent-level accuracy in shear recovery is achievable with single-exposure images for $Q\lesssim 2$. The conclusion holds for galaxies much smaller than the PSF, and those with a significant level of noise.

  • Dark against luminous matter around isolated central galaxies: a comparative study between modern surveys and Illustris-TNG

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Based on independent shear measurements using the DECaLS/DR8 imaging data, we measure the weak lensing signals around isolated central galaxies (ICGs) from SDSS/DR7 at $z\sim0.1$. The projected stellar mass density profiles of surrounding satellite galaxies are further deduced, using photometric sources from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey (pDR3). The signals of ICGs $+$ their extended stellar halos are taken from Wang et al.(2021). All measurements are compared with predictions by the Illustris-TNG300-1 simulation. We find, overall, a good agreement between observation and TNG300. In particular, a correction to the stellar mass of massive observed ICGs is applied based on the calibration of He et al.(2013), which brings a much better agreement with TNG300 predicted lensing signals at $\log_{10}M_\ast/M_\odot>11.1$. In real observation, red ICGs are hosted by more massive dark matter halos, have more satellites and more extended stellar halos than blue ICGs at fixed stellar mass. However, in TNG300 there are more satellites around blue ICGs at fixed stellar mass, and the outer stellar halos of red and blue ICGs are similar. The stellar halos of TNG galaxies are more extended compared with real observed galaxies, especially for blue ICGs with $\log_{10}M_\ast/M_\odot>10.8$. We find the same trend for TNG100 galaxies and for true halo central galaxies. The tensions between TNG and real galaxies might indicate that satellite disruptions are stronger in TNG. In both TNG300 and observation, satellites approximately trace the underlying dark matter distribution beyond $0.1R_{200}$, but the fraction of total stellar mass in TNG300 does not show the same radial distribution as real galaxies.

  • Halo Properties and Mass Functions of Groups/Clusters from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys DR9

    分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19

    摘要: Based on a large group/cluster catalog recently constructed from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys DR9 using an extended halo-based group finder, we measure and model the group-galaxy weak lensing signals for groups/clusters in a few redshift bins within redshift range $0.1 \leqslant z<0.6$. Here, the background shear signals are obtained based on the DECaLS survey shape catalog derived with the \textsc{Fourier\_Quad} method. We divide the lens samples into 5 equispaced redshift bins and 7 mass bins, which allow us to probe the redshift and mass dependence of the lensing signals and hence the resulting halo properties. In addition to these sample selections, we have also checked the signals around different group centers, e.g., brightest central galaxy (BCG), luminosity weighted center and number weighted center. We use a lensing model that includes off-centering to describe the lensing signals we measure for all mass and redshift bins. The results demonstrate that our model predictions for the halo masses, bias and concentrations are stable and self-consistent among different samples for different group centers. Taking advantage of the very large and complete sample of groups/clusters, as well as the reliable estimation of their halo masses, we provide measurements of the cumulative halo mass functions up to redshift $z=0.6$, with a mass precision at $0.03\sim0.09$ dex.