N. Jackson

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey - I. Survey description and preliminary data release

The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) is a deep 120-168 MHz imaging survey that will eventually cover the entire northern sky. Each of the 3170 pointings will be observed for 8 h, which, at most declinations, is sufficient to produce ~5? resolution images with a sensitivity of ~100 ?Jy/beam and accomplish the main scientific aims of the survey, which are to explore the formation and evolution of massive black holes, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and large-scale structure. Owing to the compact core and long baselines of LOFAR, the images provide excellent sensitivity to both highly extended and compact emission. For legacy value, the data are archived at high spectral and time resolution to facilitate subarcsecond imaging and spectral line studies. In this paper we provide an overview of the LoTSS. We outline the survey strategy, the observational status, the current calibration techniques, a preliminary data release, and the anticipated scientific impact. The preliminary images that we have released were created using a fully automated but direction-independent calibration strategy and are significantly more sensitive than those produced by any existing large-Area low-frequency survey. In excess of 44 000 sources are detected in the images that have a resolution of 25?, typical noise levels of less than 0.5 mJy/beam, and cover an area of over 350 square degrees in the region of the HETDEX Spring Field (right ascension 10h45m00s to 15h30m00s and declination 45°00?00? to 57°00?00?).

Reducing biases on H0 measurements using strong lensing and galaxy dynamics: results from the eagle simulation

Cosmological parameter constraints from observations of time-delay lenses are becoming increasingly precise. However, there may be significant bias and scatter in these measurements due to, among other things, the so-called mass-sheet degeneracy. To estimate these uncertainties, we analyse strong lenses from the largest EAGLE hydrodynamical simulation. We apply a mass-sheet transformation to the radial density profiles of lenses, and by selecting lenses near isothermality, we find that the bias on H0 can be reduced to 5u2009peru2009cent with an intrinsic scatter of 10u2009peru2009cent, confirming previous results performed on a different simulation data set. We further investigate whether combining lensing observables with kinematic constraints helps to minimize this bias. We do not detect any significant dependence of the bias on lens model parameters or observational properties of the galaxy, but depending on the source–lens configuration, a bias may still exist. Cross lenses provide an accurate estimate of the Hubble constant, while fold (double) lenses tend to be biased low (high). With kinematic constraints, double lenses show bias and intrinsic scatter of 6u2009peru2009cent and 10u2009peru2009cent, respectively, while quad lenses show bias and intrinsic scatter of 0.5u2009peru2009cent and 10u2009peru2009cent, respectively. For lenses with a reduced χ2 > 1, a power-law dependence of the χ2 on the lens environment (number of nearby galaxies) is seen. Lastly, we model, in greater detail, the cases of two double lenses that are significantly biased. We are able to remove the bias, suggesting that the remaining biases could also be reduced by carefully taking into account additional sources of systematic uncertainty.

A new VLA/e-MERLIN limit on central images in the gravitational lens system CLASS B1030+074

We present the new Very Large Array 22 GHz and extended Multi-Element Remote-Linked Interferometer Network 5 GHz observations of CLASS B1030+074, a two-image strong gravitational lens system whose background source is a compact flat-spectrum radio quasar. In such systems we expect a third image of the background source to form close to the centre of the lensing galaxy. The existence and brightness of such images is important for investigation of the central mass distributions of lensing galaxies, but only one secure detection has been made so far in a galaxy-scale lens system. The noise levels achieved in our new B1030+074 images reach 3 μJy beam-1 and represent an improvement in central image constraints of nearly an order of magnitude over previous work, with correspondingly better resulting limits on the shape of the central mass profile of the lensing galaxy. Simple models with an isothermal outer power-law slope now require either the influence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH), or an inner power-law slope very close to isothermal, in order to suppress the central image below our detection limit. Using the central mass profiles inferred from light distributions in Virgo galaxies, moved to z = 0.5, and matching to the observed Einstein radius, we now find that 45 per cent of such mass profiles should give observable central images, 10 per cent should give central images with a flux density still below our limit, and the remaining systems have extreme demagnification produced by the central SMBH. Further observations of similar objects will therefore allow proper statistical constraints to be placed on the central properties of elliptical galaxies at high redshift.

LOFAR VLBI studies at 55 MHz of 4C 43.15, a z = 2.4 radio galaxy

The correlation between radio spectral index and redshift has been exploited to discover high-redshift radio galaxies, but its underlying cause is unclear. It is crucial to characterize the particle acceleration and loss mechanisms in high-redshift radio galaxies to understand why their radio spectral indices are steeper than their local counterparts. Low-frequency information on scales of similar to 1 arcsec are necessary to determine the internal spectral index variation. In this paper we present the first spatially resolved studies at frequencies below 100 MHz of the z = 2.4 radio galaxy 4C 43.15 which was selected based on its ultrasteep spectral index (alpha < -1; S-v similar to v(alpha)) between 365 MHz and 1.4 GHz. Using the International Low Frequency Array Low Band Antenna we achieve subarcsecond imaging resolution at 55MHz with very long baseline interferometry techniques. Our study reveals low-frequency radio emission extended along the jet axis, which connects the two lobes. The integrated spectral index for frequencies <500 MHz is -0.83. The lobes have integrated spectral indices of -1.31 +/- 0.03 and -1.75 +/- 0.01 for frequencies = 1.4 GHz, implying a break frequency between 500 MHz and 1.4 GHz. These spectral properties are similar to those of local radio galaxies. We conclude that the initially measured ultrasteep spectral index is due to a combination of the steepening spectrum at high frequencies with a break at intermediate frequencies.

Support vector machine classification of strong gravitational lenses

The imminent advent of very large-scale optical sky surveys, such as Euclid and LSST, makes it important to find efficient ways of discovering rare objects such as strong gravitational lens systems, where a background object is multiply gravitationally imaged by a foreground mass. As well as finding the lens systems, it is important to reject false positives due to intrinsic structure in galaxies, and much work is in progress with machine learning algorithms such as neural networks in order to achieve both these aims. We present and discuss a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm which makes use of a Gabor filterbank in order to provide learning criteria for separation of lenses and non-lenses, and demonstrate using blind challenges that under certain circumstances it is a particularly efficient algorithm for rejecting false positives. We compare the SVM engine with a large-scale human examination of 100000 simulated lenses in a challenge dataset, and also apply the SVM method to survey images from the Kilo-Degree Survey.

Deep observations of the Super-CLASS supercluster at 325 MHz with the GMRT: the low-frequency source catalogue

We present the results of 325 MHz GMRT observations of a super-cluster field, known to contain five Abell clusters at redshift

AMI-LA Observations of the SuperCLASS Super-cluster

z sim 0.2

VizieR Online Data Catalog: LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (Shimwell+, 2017)

. We achieve a nominal sensitivity of

LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey

34,mu

LOFAR Bootes and 3C295 field sources

Jy beam