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Published June 20, 2009 | Published
Journal Article Open

Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Massive Red-Sequence-Selected Galaxy Cluster at z = 1.34 in the SpARCS-South Cluster Survey

Abstract

The Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS) is a z'-passband imaging survey, consisting of deep (z' ≃ 24 AB) observations made from both hemispheres using the CFHT 3.6 m and CTIO 4 m telescopes. The survey was designed with the primary aim of detecting galaxy clusters at z > 1. In tandem with pre-existing 3.6 μm observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope SWIRE Legacy Survey, SpARCS detects clusters using an infrared adaptation of the two-filter red-sequence cluster technique. The total effective area of the SpARCS cluster survey is 41.9 deg^2. In this paper, we provide an overview of the 13.6 deg^2 Southern CTIO/MOSAIC II observations. The 28.3 deg^2 Northern CFHT/MegaCam observations are summarized in a companion paper by Muzzin et al. In this paper, we also report spectroscopic confirmation of SpARCS J003550–431224, a very rich galaxy cluster at z = 1.335, discovered in the ELAIS-S1 field. To date, this is the highest spectroscopically confirmed redshift for a galaxy cluster discovered using the red-sequence technique. Based on nine confirmed members, SpARCS J003550–431224 has a preliminary velocity dispersion of 1050 ± 230 km s^(–1). With its proven capability for efficient cluster detection, SpARCS is a demonstration that we have entered an era of large, homogeneously selected z > 1 cluster surveys.

Additional Information

© 2009 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2008 September 30; accepted 2009 April 13; published 2009 June 5. The authors thank the staff of The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory for their invaluable assistance, without which this work would not have been possible. CTIO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under contract with the National Science Foundation. Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (US), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (UK), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministrio da Cincia e Tecnologia (Brazil) and SECYT (Argentina). This work is based in part on archival data obtained with Spitzer, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by an award issued by JPL/Caltech. G.W. acknowledges support from the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UCR.

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August 21, 2023
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