Showing papers by "Giovanni Covone published in 2012"

The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): Survey Definition and Goals

Abstract: We present the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), an 18 square degrees medium-deep survey at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the post-cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope to ~2 microJy (AB=23.1) depth of five highly observed astronomical fields (ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-S1, Lockman Hole, Chandra Deep Field South and XMM-LSS). SERVS is designed to enable the study of galaxy evolution as a function of environment from z~5 to the present day, and is the first extragalactic survey both large enough and deep enough to put rare objects such as luminous quasars and galaxy clusters at z>1 into their cosmological context. SERVS is designed to overlap with several key surveys at optical, near- through far-infrared, submillimeter and radio wavelengths to provide an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies. In this paper, we discuss the SERVS survey design, the data processing flow from image reduction and mosaicing to catalogs, as well as coverage of ancillary data from other surveys in the SERVS fields. We also highlight a variety of early science results from the survey.

The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): survey definition and goals

Abstract: We present the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), an 18 square degrees medium-deep survey at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the post-cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope to ~2 microJy (AB=23.1) depth of five highly observed astronomical fields (ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-S1, Lockman Hole, Chandra Deep Field South and XMM-LSS). SERVS is designed to enable the study of galaxy evolution as a function of environment from z~5 to the present day, and is the first extragalactic survey both large enough and deep enough to put rare objects such as luminous quasars and galaxy clusters at z>1 into their cosmological context. SERVS is designed to overlap with several key surveys at optical, near- through far-infrared, submillimeter and radio wavelengths to provide an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies. In this paper, we discuss the SERVS survey design, the data processing flow from image reduction and mosaicing to catalogs, as well as coverage of ancillary data from other surveys in the SERVS fields. We also highlight a variety of early science results from the survey.

Testing the dark energy with gravitational lensing statistics

Abstract: We study the redshift distribution of two samples of early-type gravitational lenses, extracted from a larger collection of 122 systems, to constrain the cosmological constant in the {Lambda}CDM model and the parameters of a set of alternative dark energy models (XCDM, Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati, and Ricci dark energy models), in a spatially flat universe. The likelihood is maximized for {Omega}{sub {Lambda}} = 0.70 {+-} 0.09 when considering the sample excluding the Sloan Lens ACS systems (known to be biased toward large image-separation lenses) and no-evolution, and {Omega}{sub {Lambda}} = 0.81 {+-} 0.05 when limiting to gravitational lenses with image separation {Delta}{theta} > 2'' and no-evolution. In both cases, results accounting for galaxy evolution are consistent within 1{sigma}. The present test supports the accelerated expansion, by excluding the null hypothesis (i.e., {Omega}{sub {Lambda}} = 0) at more than 4{sigma}, regardless of the chosen sample and assumptions on the galaxy evolution. A comparison between competitive world models is performed by means of the Bayesian information criterion. This shows that the simplest cosmological constant model-that has only one free parameter-is still preferred by the available data on the redshift distribution of gravitational lenses. We perform an analysis of the possible systematic effects, finding that themore » systematic errors due to sample incompleteness, galaxy evolution, and model uncertainties approximately equal the statistical errors, with present-day data. We find that the largest sources of systemic errors are the dynamical normalization and the high-velocity cutoff factor, followed by the faint-end slope of the velocity dispersion function.« less

Testing the dark energy with gravitational lensing statistics

Abstract: We study the redshift distribution of two samples of early-type gravitational lenses, extracted from a larger collection of 122 systems, to constrain the cosmological constant in the LCDM model and the parameters of a set of alternative dark energy models (XCDM, Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati and Ricci dark energy models), under a spatially flat universe The likelihood is maximized for $\Omega_\Lambda= 070 \pm 009$ when considering the sample excluding the SLACS systems (known to be biased towards large image-separation lenses) and no-evolution, and $\Omega_\Lambda= 081\pm 005$ when limiting to gravitational lenses with image separation larger than 2" and no-evolution In both cases, results accounting for galaxy evolution are consistent within 1$\sigma$ The present test supports the accelerated expansion, by excluding the null-hypothesis (ie, $\Omega_\Lambda = 0 $) at more than 4$\sigma$, regardless of the chosen sample and assumptions on the galaxy evolution A comparison between competitive world models is performed by means of the Bayesian information criterion This shows that the simplest cosmological constant model - that has only one free parameter - is still preferred by the available data on the redshift distribution of gravitational lenses We perform an analysis of the possible systematic effects, finding that the systematic errors due to sample incompleteness, galaxy evolution and model uncertainties approximately equal the statistical errors, with present-day data We find that the largest sources of systemic errors are the dynamical normalization and the high-velocity cut-off factor, followed by the faint-end slope of the velocity dispersion function

The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): Survey Definition and Goals (PASP, 124, 714, [2012])

Abstract: The print version of this article contained some errors and omissions by the publishers and authors

A multi-wavelength study of the gravitational lens COSMOS J095930+023427

Abstract: We present a multi-wavelength study of the gravitational lens COSMOS J095930+023427 (z=0.89), together with the associated galaxy group located at $z\sim0.7$ along the line of sight and the lensed background galaxy. The source redshift is currently unknown, but estimated to be at $z_s \sim 2$. The analysis is based on the available public HST, Subaru, Chandra imaging data, and VLT spectroscopy. The lensing system is an early-type galaxy showing a strong [OII] emission line, and produces 4 bright images of the distant background source. It has an Einstein radius of 0.79", about 4 times large than the effective radius. We perform a lensing analysis using both a Singular Isothermal Ellipsoid (SIE) and a Peudo-Isothermal Elliptical Mass Distribution (PIEMD) for the lensing galaxy, and find that the final results on the total mass, the dark matter (DM) fraction within the Einstein radius and the external shear due to a foreground galaxy group are robust with respect of the choice of the parametric model and the source redshift (yet unknown). We measure the luminous mass from the photometric data, and find the DM fraction within the Einstein radius $f_{\rm DM}$ to be between $0.71\pm 0.13$ and $0.79 \pm 0.15$, depending on the unknown source redshift. Meanwhile, the non-null external shear found in our lensing models supports the presence and structure of a galaxy group at $z\sim0.7$, and an independent measurement of the 0.5-2 keV X-ray luminosity within 20" around the X-ray centroid provides a group mass of $M=(3-10)\times 10^{13}$ M$_{\odot}$, in good agreement with the previous estimate derived through weak lensing analysis.

The dependence of the ETG mass-size relation on mass, morphology and environment from z~1 to present

Abstract: [abridged] We study the dependence of the galaxy size evolution on morphology, stellar mass and large scale environment for a sample of 298 group and 384 field quiescent early-type galaxies from the COSMOS survey, selected from z~1 to the present, and with masses $log(M/M_\odot)>10.5$. The galaxy size growth depends on galaxy mass and early-type galaxy morphology, e.g., elliptical galaxies evolve differently than lenticular galaxies. At the low mass end -$10.5 11.2$- approximately doubled their size. Interestingly, lenticular galaxies display different behavior: they appear more compact on average and they do show a size growth of \sim60% since z=1 independent of stellar mass. We compare our results with state-of-the art semi-analytic models. While major and minor mergers can account for most of the galaxy size growth, we find that with present data and the theoretical uncertainties in the modeling we cannot state clear evidence favoring either merger or mass loss via quasar and/or stellar winds as the primary mechanism driving the evolution. The galaxy mass--size relation and the size growth do not depend on environment in the halo mass range explored in this work (field to group mass $log(M_h/M_\odot) 11.2$.