Mark Birkinshaw

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

Abstract The Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect causes a change in the apparent brightness of the cosmic microwave background radiation towards a cluster of galaxies or any other reservoir of hot plasma. Measurements of the effect provide distinctly different information about cluster properties than X-ray imaging data, while combining X-ray and Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect data leads to new insights into the structures of cluster atmospheres. The effect is redshift-independent, and so provides a unique probe of the structure of the Universe on the largest scales. The present review discusses the theory of the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect and collects published results for many clusters, presents the overall conclusions that may be drawn from the detections so far, and discusses the prospects for future research on the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effects.

The detection of a population of submillimeter-bright, strongly lensed galaxies

Through a Lens Brightly Astronomical sources detected in the submillimeter range are generally thought to be distant, dusty galaxies undergoing a vigorous burst of star formation. They can be detected because the dust absorbs the light from stars and reemits it at longer wavelengths. Their properties are still difficult to ascertain, however, because the combination of interference from dust and the low spatial resolution of submillimeter telescopes prevents further study at other wavelengths. Using data from the Herschel Space Telescope, Negrello et al. (p. 800) showed that by searching for the brightest sources in a wide enough area in the sky it was possible to detect gravitationally lensed submillimeter galaxies with nearly full efficiency. Gravitational lensing occurs when the light of an astronomical object is deflected by a foreground mass. This phenomenon increases the apparent brightness and angular size of the lensed objects, making it easier to study sources that would be otherwise too faint to probe. Data from the Herschel Space Observatory unveils distant, dusty galaxies invisible to optical telescopes. Gravitational lensing is a powerful astrophysical and cosmological probe and is particularly valuable at submillimeter wavelengths for the study of the statistical and individual properties of dusty star-forming galaxies. However, the identification of gravitational lenses is often time-intensive, involving the sifting of large volumes of imaging or spectroscopic data to find few candidates. We used early data from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey to demonstrate that wide-area submillimeter surveys can simply and easily detect strong gravitational lensing events, with close to 100% efficiency.

An X-Ray Study of Magnetic Field Strengths and Particle Content in the Lobes of FR II Radio Sources

We present a Chandra and XMM-Newton study of X-ray emission from the lobes of 33 classical double radio galaxies and quasars. We report new detections of lobe-related X-ray emission in 11 sources. Together with previous detections, we find that X-ray emission is detected from at least one radio lobe in � 75% of the sample. For all of the lobe detections, we find that the measured X-ray flux can be attributed to inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background radiation, with magnetic field strengths in the lobes between 0.3Beq and 1.3Beq, where the value Beq corresponds to equipartition between the electrons and magnetic field, assuming a filling factor of unity. ThereisastrongpeakinthemagneticfieldstrengthdistributionatB � 0:7Beq.Wefindthatmorethan70%oftheradio lobes are either at equipartition or electron dominated by a small factor. The distribution of measured magnetic field strengthsdiffersfornarrow-andbroad-lineobjects,inthesensethatbroad-lineradiogalaxiesandquasarsappeartobe further from equipartition; however,thisislikelytobeduetoacombinationofprojectioneffectsandworsesystematic uncertainty in the X-ray analysis for those objects. Our results suggest that the lobes of classical double radio sources do not contain an energetically dominant proton population, because this would require the magnetic field energy density to be similar to the electron energy density rather than the overall energy density in relativistic particles. Subject headings: galaxies: active — quasars: general — radiation mechanisms: nonthermal — X-rays: galaxies Online material: color figure

BLAZARS IN THE FERMI ERA: THE OVRO 40 m TELESCOPE MONITORING PROGRAM

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope provides an unprecedented opportunity to study gamma-ray blazars. To capitalize on this opportunity, beginning in late 2007, about a year before the start of LAT science operations, we began a large-scale, fast-cadence 15 GHz radio monitoring program with the 40 m telescope at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. This program began with the 1158 northern (δ > –20°) sources from the Candidate Gamma-ray Blazar Survey and now encompasses over 1500 sources, each observed twice per week with about 4 mJy (minimum) and 3% (typical) uncertainty. Here, we describe this monitoring program and our methods, and present radio light curves from the first two years (2008 and 2009). As a first application, we combine these data with a novel measure of light curve variability amplitude, the intrinsic modulation index, through a likelihood analysis to examine the variability properties of subpopulations of our sample. We demonstrate that, with high significance (6σ), gamma-ray-loud blazars detected by the LAT during its first 11 months of operation vary with almost a factor of two greater amplitude than do the gamma-ray-quiet blazars in our sample. We also find a significant (3σ) difference between variability amplitude in BL Lacertae objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), with the former exhibiting larger variability amplitudes. Finally, low-redshift (z < 1) FSRQs are found to vary more strongly than high-redshift FSRQs, with 3σ significance. These findings represent an important step toward understanding why some blazars emit gamma-rays while others, with apparently similar properties, remain silent.

A Powerful Radio Halo in the Hottest Known Cluster of Galaxies 1E 0657–56

We report the detection of a diffuse radio halo source in the hottest known cluster of galaxies 1E 0657-56 (RX J0658-5557). The radio halo has a morphology similar to the X-ray emission from the hot intracluster medium. The presence of a luminous radio halo in such a hot cluster is further evidence for a steep correlation between the radio halo power and the X-ray temperature. We favor models for the origin of radio halo sources involving a direct connection between the X-ray emitting thermal particles and the radio emitting relativistic particles.

Chandra and Xmm-Newton observations of a sample of low-redshift FR I and FR II radio galaxy nuclei

We present spectral results from Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of a sample of 22 low-redshift (z < 0.1) radio galaxies and consider whether the core emission originates from the base of a relativistic jet, or an accretion flow, or contains contributions from both. We find correlations between the unabsorbed X-ray, radio, and optical fluxes and luminosities of FR I-type radio-galaxy cores, implying a common origin in the form of a jet. On the other hand, we find that the X-ray spectra of FR II-type radio galaxy cores are dominated by absorbed emission, with NH 1023 atoms cm-2, which is likely to originate in an accretion flow. We discuss several models that may account for the different nuclear properties of FR I- and FR II-type cores and also demonstrate that both heavily obscured, accretion-related and unobscured, jet-related components may be present in all radio galaxy nuclei. Any absorbed, accretion-related components in FR I-type galaxies have low radiative efficiencies.

A Chandra observation of the X-ray environment and jet of 3C 31

We have observed the twin-jet radio galaxy 3C 296 with Chandra. X-ray emission is detected from the nucleus, from the inner parts of the radio jet and from a small-scale thermal environment around the jet deceleration region. As we have found in previous observations of other twin-jet radio galaxies, the X-ray jet and a steep pressure gradient in the external thermal environment are associated with the region where strong bulk deceleration of the jet material is suggested by radio observations. Our observations provide additional evidence that the inner jets of twin-jet objects are always associated with a relatively cool, dense central X-ray emitting component with a short cooling time.

The XMM-LSS survey: the Class 1 cluster sample over the initial 5 deg2 and its cosmological modelling

We present a sample of 29 galaxy clusters from the XMM-LSS survey over an area of some 5deg2 out to a redshift of z=1.05. The sample clusters, which represent about half of the X-ray clusters identified in the region, follow well defined X-ray selection criteria and are all spectroscopically confirmed. For all clusters, we provide X-ray luminosities and temperatures as well as masses. The cluster distribution peaks around z=0.3 and T =1.5 keV, half of the objects being groups with a temperature below 2 keV. Our L-T(z) relation points toward self-similar evolution, but does not exclude other physically plausible models. Assuming that cluster scaling laws follow self-similar evolution, our number density estimates up to z=1 are compatible with the predictions of the concordance cosmology and with the findings of previous ROSAT surveys. Our well monitored selection function allowed us to demonstrate that the inclusion of selection effects is essential for the correct determination of the evolution of the L-T relation, which may explain the contradictory results from previous studies. Extensive simulations show that extending the survey area to 10deg2 has the potential to exclude the non-evolution hypothesis, but that constraints on more refined ICM models will probably be limited by the large intrinsic dispersion of the L-T relation. We further demonstrate that increasing the dispersion in the scaling laws increases the number of detectable clusters, hence generating further degeneracy [in addition to sigma8, Omega_m, L(M,z) and T(M,z)] in the cosmological interpretation of the cluster number counts. We provide useful empirical formulae for the cluster mass-flux and mass-count-rate relations as well as a comparison between the XMM-LSS mass sensitivity and that of forthcoming SZ surveys.

The origins of X-ray emission from the hot spots of FR II radio sources

We use new and archival Chandra data to investigate the X-ray emission from a large sample of compact hot spots of FR II radio galaxies and quasars from the 3C catalog. We find that only the most luminous hot spots tend to be in good agreement with the predictions of a synchrotron self-Compton model with equipartition magnetic fields. At low hot spot luminosities inverse Compton predictions are routinely exceeded by several orders of magnitude, but this is never seen in more luminous hot spots. We argue that an additional synchrotron component of the X-ray emission is present in low-luminosity hot spots and that the hot spot luminosity controls the ability of a given hot spot to produce synchrotron X-rays, probably by determining the high-energy cutoff of the electron energy spectrum. It remains plausible that all hot spots are close to the equipartition condition.

Gravitational Lens Models Based on Submillimeter Array Imaging of Herschel-selected Strongly Lensed Sub-millimeter Galaxies at z > 1.5

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 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 half) and far-infrared luminosities (L 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 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 FIR (median L FIR = 7.9 × 1012 L ☉) and two decades in FIR luminosity surface density (median ΣFIR = 6.0 × 1011 L ☉ kpc–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.