Scripts and data used to process data for the Weighing the Giants Project
Please cite the Weighing the Giants core papers if you use any material from this repository. The abstracts and bibtex entries are provided below.
Title: Weighing the Giants - I. Weak-lensing masses for 51 massive galaxy clusters: project overview, data analysis methods and cluster images
Authors: von der Linden, Anja; Allen, Mark T.; Applegate, Douglas E.; Kelly, Patrick L.; Allen, Steven W.; Ebeling, Harald; Burchat, Patricia R.; Burke, David L.; Donovan, David; Morris, R. Glenn; Blandford, Roger; Erben, Thomas; Mantz, Adam
Publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 439, Issue 1, p.2-27
Publication Date: 03/2014 Origin: OUP Abstract Copyright: The Authors 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt1945
Bibliographic Code: 2014MNRAS.439....2V
Abstract: This is the first in a series of papers in which we measure accurate weak-lensing masses for 51 of the most X-ray luminous galaxy clusters known at redshifts 0.15 ≲ zCl ≲ 0.7, in order to calibrate X-ray and other mass proxies for cosmological cluster experiments. The primary aim is to improve the absolute mass calibration of cluster observables, currently the dominant systematic uncertainty for cluster count experiments. Key elements of this work are the rigorous quantification of systematic uncertainties, high-quality data reduction and photometric calibration, and the `blind' nature of the analysis to avoid confirmation bias. Our target clusters are drawn from X-ray catalogues based on the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, and provide a versatile calibration sample for many aspects of cluster cosmology. We have acquired wide-field, high-quality imaging using the Subaru Telescope and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope for all 51 clusters, in at least three bands per cluster. For a subset of 27 clusters, we have data in at least five bands, allowing accurate photometric redshift estimates of lensed galaxies. In this paper, we describe the cluster sample and observations, and detail the processing of the SuprimeCam data to yield high-quality images suitable for robust weak-lensing shape measurements and precision photometry. For each cluster, we present wide-field three-colour optical images and maps of the weak-lensing mass distribution, the optical light distribution and the X-ray emission. These provide insights into the large-scale structure in which the clusters are embedded. We measure the offsets between X-ray flux centroids and the brightest cluster galaxies in the clusters, finding these to be small in general, with a median of 20 kpc. For offsets ≲100 kpc, weak-lensing mass measurements centred on the brightest cluster galaxies agree well with values determined relative to the X-ray centroids; miscentring is therefore not a significant source of systematic uncertainty for our weak-lensing mass measurements. In accompanying papers, we discuss the key aspects of our photometric calibration and photometric redshift measurements (Kelly et al.), and measure cluster masses using two methods, including a novel Bayesian weak-lensing approach that makes full use of the photometric redshift probability distributions for individual background galaxies (Applegate et al.). In subsequent papers, we will incorporate these weak-lensing mass measurements into a self-consistent framework to simultaneously determine cluster scaling relations and cosmological parameters.
Title: Weighing the Giants - II. Improved calibration of photometry from stellar colours and accurate photometric redshifts
Authors: Kelly, Patrick L.; von der Linden, Anja; Applegate, Douglas E.; Allen, Mark T.; Allen, Steven W.; Burchat, Patricia R.; Burke, David L.; Ebeling, Harald; Capak, Peter; Czoske, Oliver; Donovan, David; Mantz, Adam; Morris, R. Glenn
Publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 439, Issue 1, p.28-47
Publication Date: 03/2014 Origin: OUP Abstract Copyright: 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt1946
Bibliographic Code: 2014MNRAS.439...28K
Abstract: We present improved methods for using stars found in astronomical exposures to calibrate both star and galaxy colours as well as to adjust the instrument flat-field. By developing a spectroscopic model for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) stellar locus in colour-colour space, synthesizing an expected stellar locus, and simultaneously solving for all unknown zero-points when fitting to the instrumental locus, we increase the calibration accuracy of stellar locus matching. We also use a new combined technique to estimate improved flat-field models for the Subaru SuprimeCam camera, forming `star flats' based on the magnitudes of stars observed in multiple positions or through comparison with available measurements in the SDSS catalogue. These techniques yield galaxy magnitudes with reliable colour calibration (≲0.01-0.02 mag accuracy) that enable us to estimate photometric redshift probability distributions without spectroscopic training samples. We test the accuracy of our photometric redshifts using spectroscopic redshifts zs for ˜5000 galaxies in 27cluster fields with at least five bands of photometry, as well as galaxies in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, finding σ((zp - zs)/(1 + zs)) ≈ 0.03 for the most probable redshift zp. We show that the full posterior probability distributions for the redshifts of galaxies with five-band photometry exhibit good agreement with redshifts estimated from thirty-band photometry in the COSMOS field. The growth of shear with increasing distance behind each galaxy cluster shows the expected redshift-distance relation for a flat Λ cold dark matter (Λ-CDM) cosmology. Photometric redshifts and calibrated colours are used in subsequent papers to measure the masses of 51 galaxy clusters from their weak gravitational shear and determine improved cosmological constraints. We make our PYTHON code for stellar locus matching publicly available at http://big-macs-calibrate.googlecode.com; the code requires only input catalogues and filter transmission functions.
Title: Weighing the Giants - III. Methods and measurements of accurate galaxy cluster weak-lensing masses
Authors: Applegate, Douglas E.; von der Linden, Anja; Kelly, Patrick L.; Allen, Mark T.; Allen, Steven W.; Burchat, Patricia R.; Burke, David L.; Ebeling, Harald; Mantz, Adam; Morris, R. Glenn
Publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 439, Issue 1, p.48-72
Publication Date: 03/2014 Origin: OUP Abstract Copyright: 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stt2129
Bibliographic Code: 2014MNRAS.439...48A
Abstract: We report weak-lensing masses for 51 of the most X-ray luminous galaxy
clusters known. This cluster sample, introduced earlier in this series
of papers, spans redshifts 0.15 ≲ zcl ≲ 0.7, and is
well suited to calibrate mass proxies for current cluster cosmology
experiments. Cluster masses are measured with a standard colour-cut' lensing method from three-filter photometry of each field. Additionally, for 27 cluster fields with at least five-filter photometry, we measure high-accuracy masses using a new method that exploits all information available in the photometric redshift posterior probability distributions of individual galaxies. Using simulations based on the COSMOS-30 catalogue, we demonstrate control of systematic biases in the mean mass of the sample with this method, from photometric redshift biases and associated uncertainties, to better than 3 per cent. In contrast, we show that the use of single-point estimators in place of the full photometric redshift posterior distributions can lead to significant redshift-dependent biases on cluster masses. The performance of our new photometric redshift-based method allows us to calibrate colour-cut' masses for all 51 clusters in the present sample to a total
systematic uncertainty of ≈7 per cent on the mean mass, a level
sufficient to significantly improve current cosmology constraints from
galaxy clusters. Our results bode well for future cosmological studies
of clusters, potentially reducing the need for exhaustive spectroscopic
calibration surveys as compared to other techniques, when deep,
multifilter optical and near-IR imaging surveys are coupled with robust
photometric redshift methods.
@ARTICLE{2014MNRAS.439...48A, author = {{Applegate}, D.~E. and {von der Linden}, A. and {Kelly}, P.~L. and {Allen}, M.~T. and {Allen}, S.~W. and {Burchat}, P.~R. and {Burke}, D.~L. and {Ebeling}, H. and {Mantz}, A. and {Morris}, R.~G.}, title = "{Weighing the Giants - III. Methods and measurements of accurate galaxy cluster weak-lensing masses}", journal = {\mnras}, archivePrefix = "arXiv", eprint = {1208.0605}, keywords = {gravitational lensing: weak, methods: data analysis, methods: statistical, galaxies: clusters: general, galaxies: distances and redshifts, cosmology: observations}, year = 2014, month = mar, volume = 439, pages = {48-72}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stt2129}, adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.439...48A}, adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System} }
@ARTICLE{2014MNRAS.439....2V, author = {{von der Linden}, A. and {Allen}, M.~T. and {Applegate}, D.~E. and {Kelly}, P.~L. and {Allen}, S.~W. and {Ebeling}, H. and {Burchat}, P.~R. and {Burke}, D.~L. and {Donovan}, D. and {Morris}, R.~G. and {Blandford}, R. and {Erben}, T. and {Mantz}, A.}, title = "{Weighing the Giants - I. Weak-lensing masses for 51 massive galaxy clusters: project overview, data analysis methods and cluster images}", journal = {\mnras}, archivePrefix = "arXiv", eprint = {1208.0597}, keywords = {gravitational lensing: weak, methods: data analysis, galaxies: clusters: general, galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD, cosmology: observations}, year = 2014, month = mar, volume = 439, pages = {2-27}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stt1945}, adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.439....2V}, adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System} }
@ARTICLE{2014MNRAS.439...28K, author = {{Kelly}, P.~L. and {von der Linden}, A. and {Applegate}, D.~E. and {Allen}, M.~T. and {Allen}, S.~W. and {Burchat}, P.~R. and {Burke}, D.~L. and {Ebeling}, H. and {Capak}, P. and {Czoske}, O. and {Donovan}, D. and {Mantz}, A. and {Morris}, R.~G.}, title = "{Weighing the Giants - II. Improved calibration of photometry from stellar colours and accurate photometric redshifts}", journal = {\mnras}, archivePrefix = "arXiv", eprint = {1208.0602}, keywords = {gravitational lensing: weak, methods: observational, techniques: photometric}, year = 2014, month = mar, volume = 439, pages = {28-47}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stt1946}, adsurl = {http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014MNRAS.439...28K}, adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System} }