skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Gravitational lens models based on submillimeter array imaging of Herschel -selected strongly lensed sub-millimeter galaxies at z > 1.5

Abstract

Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory: the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). From a sample of 30 Herschel sources with S {sub 500} > 100 mJy, 21 are strongly lensed (i.e., multiply imaged), 4 are moderately lensed (i.e., singly imaged), and the remainder require additional data to determine their lensing status. We apply a visibility-plane lens modeling technique to the SMA data to recover information about the masses of the lenses as well as the intrinsic (i.e., unlensed) sizes (r {sub half}) and far-infrared luminosities (L {sub FIR}) of the lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The sample of lenses comprises primarily isolated massive galaxies, but includes some groups and clusters as well. Several of the lenses are located at z {sub lens} > 0.7, a redshift regime that is inaccessible to lens searches based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. The lensed SMGs are amplified by factors that are significantly below statisticalmore » model predictions given the 500 μm flux densities of our sample. We speculate that this may reflect a deficiency in our understanding of the intrinsic sizes and luminosities of the brightest SMGs. The lensed SMGs span nearly one decade in L {sub FIR} (median L {sub FIR} = 7.9 × 10{sup 12} L {sub ☉}) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median Σ{sub FIR} = 6.0 × 10{sup 11} L {sub ☉} kpc{sup –2}). The strong lenses in this sample and others identified via (sub-)mm surveys will provide a wealth of information regarding the astrophysics of galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range in redshift.« less

Authors:
;  [1];  [2];  [3]; ; ;  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];
  1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  2. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)
  3. Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA (United Kingdom)
  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 (United States)
  5. Laboratoire AIM-Paris-Saclay, CEA/DSM/Irfu-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot, CE-Saclay, pt courrier 131, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Iowa, 203 Van Allen Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242 (United States)
  7. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 (United States)
  8. Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique, 300 Rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire, 38406 Saint Martin d'Hères (France)
  9. Department Fisica, Univ. Tor Vergata, Via Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy and SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste (Italy)
  10. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 19 J.J. Thomson Ave., Cambridge CB3 OHE (United Kingdom)
  11. Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 98bis boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris (France)
  12. Department of Astronomy, Space Science Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801 (United States)
  13. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)
  14. HH Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL (United Kingdom)
  15. California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22348538
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 779; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS; DENSITY; EVOLUTION; FLUX DENSITY; FORECASTING; GALAXIES; GRAVITATIONAL LENSES; LUMINOSITY; MASS; MIRRORS; RED SHIFT; SIMULATION; SPACE; SPATIAL RESOLUTION; SPECTROSCOPY; STATISTICAL MODELS; SURFACES; TELESCOPES; WAVELENGTHS

Citation Formats

Bussmann, R. S., Gurwell, M. A., Pérez-Fournon, I., Amber, S., Calanog, J., De Bernardis, F., Wardlow, J., Dannerbauer, H., Fu, Hai, Harris, A. I., Krips, M., Lapi, A., Maiolino, R., Omont, A., Riechers, D., Baker, A. J., Birkinshaw, M., Bock, J., and others, and. Gravitational lens models based on submillimeter array imaging of Herschel -selected strongly lensed sub-millimeter galaxies at z > 1.5. United States: N. p., 2013. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/779/1/25.
Bussmann, R. S., Gurwell, M. A., Pérez-Fournon, I., Amber, S., Calanog, J., De Bernardis, F., Wardlow, J., Dannerbauer, H., Fu, Hai, Harris, A. I., Krips, M., Lapi, A., Maiolino, R., Omont, A., Riechers, D., Baker, A. J., Birkinshaw, M., Bock, J., & others, and. Gravitational lens models based on submillimeter array imaging of Herschel -selected strongly lensed sub-millimeter galaxies at z > 1.5. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/1/25
Bussmann, R. S., Gurwell, M. A., Pérez-Fournon, I., Amber, S., Calanog, J., De Bernardis, F., Wardlow, J., Dannerbauer, H., Fu, Hai, Harris, A. I., Krips, M., Lapi, A., Maiolino, R., Omont, A., Riechers, D., Baker, A. J., Birkinshaw, M., Bock, J., and others, and. 2013. "Gravitational lens models based on submillimeter array imaging of Herschel -selected strongly lensed sub-millimeter galaxies at z > 1.5". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/779/1/25.
@article{osti_22348538,
title = {Gravitational lens models based on submillimeter array imaging of Herschel -selected strongly lensed sub-millimeter galaxies at z > 1.5},
author = {Bussmann, R. S. and Gurwell, M. A. and Pérez-Fournon, I. and Amber, S. and Calanog, J. and De Bernardis, F. and Wardlow, J. and Dannerbauer, H. and Fu, Hai and Harris, A. I. and Krips, M. and Lapi, A. and Maiolino, R. and Omont, A. and Riechers, D. and Baker, A. J. and Birkinshaw, M. and Bock, J. and others, and},
abstractNote = {Strong gravitational lenses are now being routinely discovered in wide-field surveys at (sub-)millimeter wavelengths. We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) high-spatial resolution imaging and Gemini-South and Multiple Mirror Telescope optical spectroscopy of strong lens candidates discovered in the two widest extragalactic surveys conducted by the Herschel Space Observatory: the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES). From a sample of 30 Herschel sources with S {sub 500} > 100 mJy, 21 are strongly lensed (i.e., multiply imaged), 4 are moderately lensed (i.e., singly imaged), and the remainder require additional data to determine their lensing status. We apply a visibility-plane lens modeling technique to the SMA data to recover information about the masses of the lenses as well as the intrinsic (i.e., unlensed) sizes (r {sub half}) and far-infrared luminosities (L {sub FIR}) of the lensed submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The sample of lenses comprises primarily isolated massive galaxies, but includes some groups and clusters as well. Several of the lenses are located at z {sub lens} > 0.7, a redshift regime that is inaccessible to lens searches based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopy. The lensed SMGs are amplified by factors that are significantly below statistical model predictions given the 500 μm flux densities of our sample. We speculate that this may reflect a deficiency in our understanding of the intrinsic sizes and luminosities of the brightest SMGs. The lensed SMGs span nearly one decade in L {sub FIR} (median L {sub FIR} = 7.9 × 10{sup 12} L {sub ☉}) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median Σ{sub FIR} = 6.0 × 10{sup 11} L {sub ☉} kpc{sup –2}). The strong lenses in this sample and others identified via (sub-)mm surveys will provide a wealth of information regarding the astrophysics of galaxy formation and evolution over a wide range in redshift.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/779/1/25},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22348538}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 1,
volume = 779,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2013},
month = {Tue Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2013}
}