Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

Substellar companions such as exoplanets and brown dwarfs exhibit changes in brightness arising from top-of-atmosphere inhomogeneities, providing insights into their atmospheric structure and dynamics. This variability can be measured in the light curves of high-contrast companions from the ground by combining differential spectrophotometric monitoring techniques with high-contrast imaging. However, ground-based observations are sensitive to the effects of turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, and while adaptive optics (AO) systems and bespoke data processing techniques help to mitigate these, residual systematics can limit photometric precision. Here, we inject artificial companions to data obtained with an AO system and a vector Apodizing Phase Plate coronagraph to test the level to which telluric and other systematics contaminate such light curves, and thus how well their known variability signals can be recovered. We find that varying companions are distinguishable from non-varying companions, but that variability amplitudes and periods cannot be accurately recovered when observations cover only a small number of periods. Residual systematics remain above the photon noise in the light curves but have not yet reached a noise floor. We also simulate observations to assess how specific systematic sources, such as non-common path aberrations and AO residuals, can impact aperture photometry as a companion moves through pupil-stabilized data. We show that only the lowest order aberrations are likely to affect flux measurements, but that thermal background noise is the dominant source of scatter in raw companion photometry. Predictive control and focal-plane wavefront sensing techniques will help to further reduce systematics in data of this type.

Abstract:

We reanalyzed spectra that were taken as part of the SL2S lens galaxy survey with the goal to obtain the stellar velocity dispersion with a precision and accuracy sufficient for time-delay cosmography. In order to achieve this goal, we imposed stringent cuts on the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), and employed recently developed methods to mitigate and quantify residual systematic errors that are transferred from template libraries and fitting process. We also quantified the covariance across the sample. For galaxy spectra with S/N $>20/$Å, our new measurements have an average random uncertainty of 3-4%, an average systematic uncertainty of 2%, and a covariance across the sample of 1%. We find a negligible covariance between spectra taken with different instruments. The systematic uncertainty and covariance need to be included when the sample is used as an external dataset in time-delay cosmography. We revisited empirical scaling relations of lens galaxies based on the improved kinematics. We show that the SL2S sample, the TDCOSMO time-delay lens sample, and the lower-redshift SLACS sample follow the same correlation of the effective radius, stellar velocity dispersion, and lensing mass, known as the lensing-mass fundamental plane, as the previously derived correlation that assumed isothermal mass profiles for the deflectors. We also derived for the first time the lensing-mass fundamental plane assuming free power-law mass density profiles, and we show that the three samples also follow the same correlation. This is consistent with a scenario in which massive galaxies evolve by growing their radii and mass, but stay within the plane.

Abstract:

The stellar velocity dispersion ( σ ) of massive elliptical galaxies is a key ingredient in breaking the mass-sheet degeneracy and obtaining precise and accurate cosmography from gravitational time delays. The relative uncertainty on the Hubble constant H 0 is double the relative error on σ . Therefore, time-delay cosmography imposes much more demanding requirements on the precision and accuracy of σ than galaxy studies. While precision can be achieved with an adequate signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), the accuracy critically depends on key factors such as the elemental abundance and temperature of stellar templates, flux calibration, and wavelength ranges. We carried out a detailed study of the problem using multiple sets of galaxy spectra of massive elliptical galaxies with S/N ∼ 30–160 Å −1 , along with state-of-the-art empirical and semi-empirical stellar libraries and stellar population synthesis templates. We show that the choice of stellar library is generally the dominant source of residual systematic errors. We propose a general recipe for mitigating and accounting for residual uncertainties. We show that a sub-percent level of accuracy can be achieved on individual spectra with our data quality, which we subsequently validated with simulated mock datasets. The covariance between velocity dispersions measured for a sample of spectra can also be reduced to sub-percent levels. We recommend this recipe for all applications that require high precision and accurate stellar kinematics. Thus, we have made all the software publicly available to facilitate its implementation. This recipe will also be used in future TDCOSMO collaboration papers.

Abstract:

We present combined James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRSpec and MIRI/MRS integral field spectroscopy data of the nuclear and circumnuclear regions of the highly dust obscured Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 7582, which is part of the sample of active galactic nucleaus (AGN) in the Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS). Spatially resolved analysis of the pure rotational H lines (S(1)–S(7)) reveals a characteristic power-law temperature distribution in different apertures, with the two prominent southern star-forming regions exhibiting unexpectedly high molecular gas temperatures, comparable to those in the AGN powered nuclear region. We investigate potential heating mechanisms including direct AGN photoionization, UV fluorescent excitation from young star clusters, and shock excitation. We find that shock heating gives the most plausible explanation, consistent with multiple near- and mid-IR tracers and diagnostics. Using photoionization models from the PhotoDissociation Region Toolbox, we quantify the ISM conditions in the different regions, determining that the southern star-forming regions have a high density ( cm) and are irradiated by a moderate UV radiation field ( Habing). Fitting a suite of Paris-Durham shock models to the rotational H lines, as well as rovibrational 1-0 S(1), 1-0 S(2), and 2-1 S(1) H emission lines, we find that a slow ( km s−1) C-type shock is likely responsible for the elevated temperatures. Our analysis loosely favours local starburst activity as the driver of the shocks and circumnuclear gas dynamics in NGC 7582, though the possibility of an AGN jet contribution cannot be excluded.