Joint Strong and Weak Lensing Analysis of the Massive Cluster Field J0850+3604 [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.03901


We present a combined strong and weak lensing analysis of the J085007.6+360428 (J0850) field, which contains the massive cluster Zwicky 1953. This field was selected as a candidate lens due to its high concentration of luminous red galaxies on the sky. Using Subaru/Suprime-Cam $BVR_{c}I_{c}i^{\prime}z^{\prime}$ imaging along with redshifts from MMT/Hectospec, we first perform a weak lensing shear analysis to constrain the mass distribution in this field, including the massive cluster at $z = 0.3774$, a smaller foreground halo at $z = 0.2713$, and galaxies projected along the line of sight. We then add a strong lensing constraint from a multiply-imaged galaxy identified in the Suprime-Cam imaging data with a photometric redshift of $z \approx 5.03$. In contrast with past cluster analyses that use only lensed image positions as constraints, we use the full surface brightness distribution of the lensed images. This method predicts that the source galaxy crosses a lensing caustic such that one image is a highly magnified “fold arc” from the galaxy’s outskirts. This fold arc could be used to probe the source galaxy’s structure at ultra-high spatial resolution ($< 30$ pc). Unlike past analyses of cluster-scale lenses, our new technique uses multi-plane lensing to account for the full three-dimensional mass structure in the beam. We calculate the virial mass of the primary cluster to be $\mathrm{M_{vir}} = 2.93_{-0.65}^{+0.71} \times 10^{15}~\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$ with a concentration of $\mathrm{c_{vir}} = 3.46_{-0.59}^{+0.70}$, consistent with the most massive clusters at a similar redshift. The cluster is highly elliptical, indicating a high lensing efficiency. The large mass of this cluster makes J0850 an excellent field for taking advantage of lensing magnification to search for high-redshift galaxies, complementary to that of well-studied clusters such as the HST Frontier Fields.

Read this paper on arXiv…

K. Wong, C. Raney, C. Keeton, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 17
43/55

Comments: 13 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, ApJ submitted