Characterizing the best cosmic telescopes with the millennium simulations
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)
Certain configurations of massive structures projected along the line of sight (LOS) maximize the number of detections of gravitationally lensed z ∼ 10 galaxies. We characterize such LOSs with the étendue σ{sub μ}, the area in the source plane magnified over some threshold μ. We use the Millennium I and Millennium XXL cosmological simulations to determine the frequency of high σ{sub μ} beams on the sky, their properties, and efficient selection criteria. We define the best beams as having σ{sub μ>3} > 2000 arcsec{sup 2}, for a z ∼ 10 source plane, and predict 477 ± 21 such beams on the sky. The total mass in the beam and σ{sub μ>3} are strongly correlated. After controlling for total mass, we find a significant residual correlation between σ{sub μ>3} and the number of cluster-scale halos (>10{sup 14} M {sub ☉} h {sup –1}) in the beam. Beams with σ{sub μ>3} > 2000 arcsec{sup 2}, which should be best at lensing z ∼ 10 galaxies, are 10 times more likely to contain multiple cluster-scale halos than a single cluster-scale halo. Beams containing an A1689-like massive cluster halo often have additional structures along the LOS, including at least one additional cluster-scale (M {sub 200} > 10{sup 14} M {sub ☉} h {sup –1}) halo 28% of the time. Selecting beams with multiple, massive structures will lead to enhanced detection of the most distant and intrinsically faint galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22357171
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 785, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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