We present results from strong-lens modelling of 10,000 SDSS clusters, to establish the universal distribution of Einstein radii. Detailed lensing analyses have shown that the inner mass distribution of clusters can be accurately modelled by assuming light traces mass, successfully uncovering large numbers of multiple-images. Approximate critical curves and the effective Einstein radius of each cluster can therefore be readily calculated, from the distribution of member galaxies and scaled by their luminosities. We use a subsample of 10 well-studied clusters covered by both SDSS and HST to calibrate and test this method, and show that an accurate determination of the Einstein radius and mass can be achieved by this approach "blindly", in an automated way, and without requiring multiple images as input. We present the results of the first 10,000 clusters analysed in the range $0.1<z<0.55$, and compare them to theoretical expectations. We find that for this all-sky representative sample the Einstein radius distribution is log-normal in shape, with $< Log(θ_{e}\arcsec)>=0.73^{+0.02}_{-0.03}$, $σ=0.316^{+0.004}_{-0.002}$, and with higher abundance of large $θ_{e}$ clusters than predicted by $Λ$CDM. We visually inspect each of the clusters with $θ_{e}>40 \arcsec$ ($z_{s}=2$) and find that $\sim20%$ are boosted by various projection effects detailed here, remaining with $\sim40$ real giant-lens candidates, with a maximum of $θ_{e}=69\pm12 \arcsec$ ($z_{s}=2$) for the most massive candidate, in agreement with semi-analytic calculations. The results of this work should be verified further when an extended calibration sample is available.
We study the distribution of line-of-sight velocities of galaxies in the vicinity of SDSS redMaPPer galaxy clusters. Based on their velocities, galaxies can be split into two categories: galaxies that are dynamically associated with the cluster, and random line-of-sight projections. Both the fraction of galaxies associated with the galaxy clusters, and the velocity dispersion of the same, exhibit a sharp feature as a function of radius. The feature occurs at a radial scale $R_{\rm edge} \approx 2.2R_{\rmλ}$, where $R_{\rmλ}$ is the cluster radius assigned by redMaPPer. We refer to $R_{\rm edge…
We investigate the recent and current star formation activity of galaxies as function of distance from the cluster center in a sample of 521 SDSS clusters at z<0.1. We show that when the BCGs are excluded from the galaxy sample, there is no evidence for mass segregation in the clusters, so that differences in cluster and field populations cannot simply be attributed to different mass functions. We find a marked star formation-radius relation in that almost all galaxies in the cluster core are quiescent, i.e. have terminated star formation a few Gyr ago. This star formation-radius relation is m…
We present the results of fitting simulations of an unbiased sample of SDSS galaxies utilizing the fitting routine GALFIT and analysis pipeline PyMorph. These simulations are used to test the two-dimensional decompositions of SDSS galaxies. The simulations show that single S{é}rsic models of SDSS data are recovered with $σ_{\mathrm{mag}} \approx 0.025$ mag and $σ_{\mathrm{radius}} \approx 5\%$. The global values (half-light radius and magnitude) are equally well constrained when a two-component model is used. Sub-components of two-component models present more scatter. SDSS resolution is the p…
SDSS J120602.09+514229.5 is a gravitational lens system formed by a group of galaxies at redshift z=0.422 lensing a bright background galaxy at redshift z=2.001. The main peculiarity of this system is the presence of a luminous satellite near the Einstein radius, that slightly deforms the giant arc. This makes SDSS J120602.09+514229.5 the ideal system to test our grid-based Bayesian lens modelling method, designed to detect galactic satellites independently from their mass-to-light ratio, and to measure the mass of this dwarf galaxy despite its high redshift. Thanks to the pixelized source and…
We present a lensing and photometric study of the exceptional system SDSS J1538+5817, identified by the SLACS survey. The lens is a luminous elliptical at redshift z=0.143. Using HST public images in two different filters, the presence of two background sources lensed into an Einstein ring and a double system is ascertained. Our new spectroscopic observations, performed at the NOT, reveal that the two sources are located at the same redshift z=0.531. We investigate the total mass distribution of the lens between 1 and 4 kpc from the galaxy center by means of parametric and non-parametric lensi…
Using a void catalog from the SDSS survey, we present the first measurements of void clustering and the corresponding void bias. Over the range 30-200 Mpc/h the void auto-correlation is detected at 5-sigma significance for voids of radius 15-20 Mpc/h. We also measure the void-galaxy cross-correlation at higher signal-to-noise and compare the inferred void bias with the autocorrelation results. Void bias is constant with scale for voids of a given size, but its value falls from 5.6 +/- 1.0 to below zero as the void radius increases from 15 to 30 Mpc/h. The comparison of our measurements with ca…
We develop the suggestion that dark matter could be a Bose-Einstein condensate. We determine the mass-radius relation of a Newtonian self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensate with short-range interactions described by the Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson system. We numerically solve the equation of hydrostatic equilibrium describing the balance between the gravitational attraction and the pressure due to quantum effects (Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) and short-range interactions (scattering). We connect the non-interacting limit to the Thomas-Fermi limit. We also consider the case of attractive …
We have used the VIMOS integral field spectrograph to map the emission line properties in a sample of 24 star forming galaxies selected from the SDSS database. In this data paper we present and describe the sample, and explore some basic properties of SDSS galaxies with resolved emission line fields. We fit the Halpha+[NII] emission lines in each spectrum to derive maps of continuum, Halpha flux, velocity and velocity dispersion. The Halpha, Hbeta, [NII] and [OIII] emission lines are also fit in summed spectra for circular annuli of increasing radius. A simple mass model is used to estimate dy…
The mechanism causing breaks in the radial surface brightness distribution of spiral galaxies is not yet well known. Despite theoretical efforts, there is not a unique explanation for these features and the observational results are not conclusive. In an attempt to address this problem, we have selected a sample of 34 highly inclined spiral galaxies present both in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies. We have measured the surface brightness profiles in the five Sloan optical bands and in the 3.6$μm$ Spitzer band. We have also calculated the c…
We provide an approximate analytical expression of the mass-radius relation of a Newtonian self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) with short-range interactions described by the Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson system. These equations model astrophysical objects such as boson stars and, presumably, dark matter galactic halos. Our study connects the non-interacting case studied by Ruffini & Bonazzola (1969) to the Thomas-Fermi limit studied by Böhmer & Harko (2007). For repulsive short-range interactions (positive scattering lengths), there exists configurations of arbitrary mass but their radi…
Using Planck satellite data, we construct SZ gas pressure profiles for a large, volume-complete sample of optically selected clusters. We have defined a sample of over 8,000 redMaPPer clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), within the volume-complete redshift region 0.100 < z < 0.325, for which we construct Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect maps by stacking Planck data over the full range of richness. Dividing the sample into richness bins we simultaneously solve for the mean cluster mass in each bin together with the corresponding radial pressure profile parameters, employing an MCMC …
We measure weak lensing mass profiles of voids from a volume-limited sample of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs). We find voids using an algorithm designed to maximize the lensing signal by dividing the survey volume into 2D slices, and then finding holes in this 2D distribution of LRGs. We perform a stacked shear measurement on about 20,000 voids with radii between 15-55 Mpc/h and redshifts between 0.16-0.37. We measure the characteristic radial shear signal of voids with a signal-to-noise of 7. The mass profile corresponds to a fractional underdensity of about -0.4 inside the void radius and…
We are able to extend the investigation of the color-morphology-density-radius relations, for bright and faint galaxies, to $R \gtrsim 3 \times R_{200}$ and to very low density regions, probing the transition region between cluster and field galaxies, and finding a smooth variation between these two populations. We investigate the environmental variation of galaxy properties (and their relations), such as color, spectral type and concentration. Our sample comprises 6,415 galaxies that were previously selected as cluster members from 152 systems with $z \le 0.100$. Our main findings are: (i) Th…
We have obtained long-slit spectra of 174 star-forming galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10^10 M_\odot from the GALEX Arecibo SDSS (GASS) survey. These galaxies have both HI and H_2 mass measurements. The average metallicity profile is strikingly flat out to R_90, the radius enclosing 90% of the r-band light. Metallicity profiles which decline steadily with radius are found primarily for galaxies in our sample with low stellar mass (Log(M_*)<10.2), concentration, and/or mean stellar mass density. Beyond ~R_90, however, around 10 percent of the galaxies in our sample exhibit a sharp dow…
We analyzed the Einstein radius, $θ_E$, in our sample of SL2S galaxy groups, and compared it with $R_A$ (the distance from the arcs to the center of the lens), using three different approaches: 1.- the velocity dispersion obtained from weak lensing assuming a Singular Isothermal Sphere profile ($θ_{E,I}$), 2.- a strong lensing analytical method ($θ_{E,II}$) combined with a velocity dispersion-concentration relation derived from numerical simulations designed to mimic our group sample, 3.- strong lensing modeling ($θ_{E,III}$) of eleven groups (with four new models presented in this work) using…
We present catalogues of voids for the SDSS DR7 redshift survey and for Millennium I simulation mock data. We aim to compare the observations with simulations based on a $Λ$CDM model and a semi-analytic galaxy formation model. We use the void statistics as a test for these models. We assembled a mock catalogue that closely resembles the SDSS DR7 catalogue and carried out a parallel statistical analysis of the observed and simulated catalogue. We find that in the observation and the simulation, voids tend to be equally spherical. The total volume occupied by the voids and their total number are…
We present the first results from the X-shooter Lens Survey (XLENS): an analysis of the massive early-type galaxy SDSS J1148+1930 at redshift z=0.444. We combine its extended kinematic profile -derived from spectra obtained with X-shooter on the ESO VLT- with strong gravitational lensing and multi-color information derived from SDSS images. Our main results are (i) The luminosity-weighted stellar velocity dispersion is σ*(<Reff) = 351\pm10 km/s, extracted from a rectangular aperture of 1.8"x1.6", more accurate and considerably lower than a previously published value of \sim450km/s. (ii) A sing…
In the era of large surveys, yielding thousands of galaxy clusters, efficient mass proxies at all scales are necessary in order to fully utilize clusters as cosmological probes. At the cores of strong lensing clusters, the Einstein radius can be turned into a mass estimate. This efficient method has been routinely used in literature, in lieu of detailed mass models; however, its scatter, assumed to be $\sim30\%$, has not yet been quantified. Here, we assess this method by testing it against ray-traced images of cluster-scale halos from the Outer Rim N-body cosmological simulation. We measure a…
We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS and WFC3 observations of SDSS J1029+2623, a three-image quasar lens system produced by a foreground cluster at z=0.584. Our strong lensing analysis reveals 6 additional multiply imaged galaxies. We confirm the complex nature of the mass distribution of the lensing cluster, with a bimodal distribution which deviates from the Chandra X-ray SB distribution. The Einstein radius is estimated to be θ_E=15.2" \pm 0.5" for the quasar redshift of z=2.197. We derive a radial mass distribution from the combination of strong lensing, HST/ACS weak lensing, and Su…
The assumption that the Universe, on sufficiently large scales, is homogeneous and isotropic is crucial to our current understanding of cosmology. In this paper we test if the observed galaxy distribution is actually homogeneous on large scales. We have carried out a multifractal analysis of the galaxy distribution in a volume limited subsample from the SDSS DR6. This considers the scaling properties of different moments of galaxy number counts in spheres of varying radius $r$ centered on galaxies. This analysis gives the spectrum of generalized dimension $D_q(r)$, where $q >0$ quantifies the …
The main feature of the spatial large-scale galaxy distribution is its intricate network of galaxy filaments. This network is spanned by the galaxy locations that can be interpreted as a three-dimensional point distribution. The global properties of the point process can be measured by different statistical methods, which, however, do not describe directly the structure elements. The morphology of the large scale structure, on the other hand, is an important property of the galaxy distribution. Here we apply an object point process with interactions (the Bisous model) to trace and extract the …
The incidence of sub-galactic level substructures is an important quantity, as it is a generic prediction of high-resolution Cold Dark Matter (CDM) models which is susceptible to observational test. Confrontation of theory with observations is currently in an uncertain state. In particular, gravitational lens systems appear to show evidence for flux ratio anomalies, which are expected from CDM substructures although not necessarily in the same range of radius as observed. However, the current small samples of lenses suggest that the lens galaxies in these systems are unusually often accompanie…
In a sample of about 45,700 early-type galaxies extracted from SDSS, we find that the shape, normalization, and dispersion around the mean size-stellar mass relation is the same for young and old systems, provided the stellar mass is greater than 3*10^10 Msun. This is difficult to reproduce in pure passive evolution models, which generically predict older galaxies to be much more compact than younger ones of the same stellar mass. However, this aspect of our measurements is well reproduced by hierarchical models of galaxy formation. Whereas the models predict more compact galaxies at high reds…
We study the redshift evolution of the dynamical properties of ~180,000 massive galaxies from SDSS-III/BOSS combined with a local early-type galaxy sample from SDSS-II in the redshift range 0.1<z< 0.6. The typical stellar mass of this sample is Mstar~2x10^{11} Msun. We analyze the evolution of the galaxy parameters effective radius, stellar velocity dispersion, and the dynamical to stellar mass ratio with redshift. As the effective radii of BOSS galaxies at these redshifts are not well resolved in the SDSS imaging we calibrate the SDSS size measurements with HST/COSMOS photometry for a sub-sam…
We measure the color and stellar mass dependence of clustering in spectroscopic galaxies at $0.6 < z < 0.65$ using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey component of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We greatly increase the statistical precision of our clustering measurements by using the cross-correlation of 66,657 spectroscopic galaxies to a sample of 6.6 million fainter photometric galaxies. The clustering amplitude $w(R)$ is measured as the ratio of the mean excess number of photometric galaxies found within a specified radius annulus around a spectroscopic galaxy to that from …
Analysis of strong gravitational lensing data is important in this era of precision cosmology. The objective of the present study is to directly compare the analysis of strong gravitational lens systems using different lens model software and similarly parameterized models to understand the differences and limitations of the resulting models. The software lens model translation tool, HydraLens, was used to generate multiple models for four strong lens systems including COSMOS J095930+023427, SDSS J1320+1644, SDSSJ1430+4105 and J1000+0021. All four lens systems were modeled with PixeLens, Lenst…
The bright central galaxies (BCGs) dominate the inner portion of the diffuse cluster light, but it is still unclear where the intracluster light (ICL) takes over. To investigate the BCG-ICL transition, we stack the images of ${\sim}3000$ clusters between $0.2{<}z{<}0.3$ in the SDSS $gri$ bands, and measure their BCG+ICL stellar surface mass profile $Σ_{*}^{\texttt{B+I}}$ down to $3{\times}10^4\,M_{\odot}/\mathrm{kpc}^{2}$ at $R{\simeq}1\,\mathrm{Mpc}$ (${\sim}32$ mag/arcsec$^2$ in the $r$-band). We develop a physically-motivated method to decompose $Σ_{*}^{\texttt{B+I}}$ into three components,…