Accounting for Cosmic Variance in Studies of Gravitationally-Lensed High-Redshift Galaxies in the Hubble Frontier Field Clusters

Abstract

Strong gravitational lensing provides a powerful means for studying faint galaxies in the distant universe. By magnifying the apparent brightness of background sources, massive clusters enable the detection of galaxies fainter than the usual sensitivity limit for blank fields. However, this gain in effective sensitivity comes at the cost of a reduced survey volume and, in this {\it Letter}, we demonstrate there is an associated increase in the cosmic variance uncertainty. As an example, we show that the cosmic variance uncertainty of the high redshift population viewed through the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Field cluster Abell 2744 increases from ~35% at redshift z~7 to >~65% at z~10. Previous studies of high redshift galaxies identified in the Frontier Fields have underestimated the cosmic variance uncertainty that will affect the ultimate constraints on both the faint end slope of the high-redshift luminosity function and the cosmic star formation rate density, key goals of the Frontier Field program.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures. Version accepted by ApJL

References in corpus (39)

• MultiNest: an efficient and robust Bayesian inference tool for cosmology and particle physics
• Baryonic Features in the Matter Transfer Function
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey - The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products and Mosaics
• Toward a halo mass function for precision cosmology: the limits of universality
• The Large Scale Bias of Dark Matter Halos: Numerical Calibration and Model Tests
• The Dark Side of the Halo Occupation Distribution
• The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH): An Overview
• Modeling Luminosity-Dependent Galaxy Clustering Through Cosmic Time
• New Constraints on Cosmic Reionization from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• UV Luminosity Functions from 132 z~7 and z~8 Lyman-Break Galaxies in the ultra-deep HUDF09 and wide-area ERS WFC3/IR Observations
• The Abundance of Star-Forming Galaxies in the Redshift Range 8.5 to 12: New Results from the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• A new multi-field determination of the galaxy luminosity function at z=7-9 incorporating the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field imaging
• CLASH: Three Strongly Lensed Images of a Candidate z ~ 11 Galaxy
• Cosmic Variance and Its Effect on the Luminosity Function Determination in Deep High z Surveys
• The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z >5: Evidence for a photon starved and extended epoch of reionization
• Early star-forming galaxies and the reionization of the Universe
• A highly magnified candidate for a young galaxy seen when the Universe was 500 Myrs old
• The HST eXtreme Deep Field XDF: Combining all ACS and WFC3/IR Data on the HUDF Region into the Deepest Field Ever
• Concordance models of reionization: implications for faint galaxies and escape fraction evolution
• The UV Luminosity Function of star-forming galaxies via dropout selection at redshifts z ~ 7 and 8 from the 2012 Ultra Deep Field campaign
• z~7 Galaxies in the HUDF: First Epoch WFC3/IR Results
• Mass and magnification maps for the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields clusters: implications for high redshift studies
• Galaxies at z = 6 - 9 from the WFC3/IR imaging of the HUDF
• CANDELS: The Contribution of the Observed Galaxy Population to Cosmic Reionization
• The UV continua and inferred stellar populations of galaxies at z ~ 7 - 9 revealed by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 campaign
• Modelling Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Perturbation Theory and Stochastic Halo Biasing
• The 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF12): Observational Overview
• A Geometrically Supported $z\sim 10$ Candidate Multiply-Imaged by the Hubble Frontier Fields Cluster Abell 2744
• Evolution of the Sizes of Galaxies over 7<z<12 Revealed by the 2012 Hubble Ultra Deep Field Campaign
• The Bright End of the UV Luminosity Function at z~8: New Constraints from CANDELS Data in GOODS-South
• CLASH: A Census of Magnified Star-Forming Galaxies at z ~ 6-8
• Young Galaxy Candidates in the Hubble Frontier Fields. I. Abell 2744
• Probing the z>6 Universe with the first Hubble Frontier Fields cluster Abell 2744
• Estimating Luminosity Function Constraints from High-Redshift Galaxy Surveys
• A Method for Measuring the Bias of High-Redshift Galaxies from Cosmic Variance
• The Cosmic Near Infrared Background III: Fluctuations, Reionization and the Effects of Minimum Mass and Self-regulation
• Ultra-faint high-redshift galaxies in the Frontier Fields

Cited by in corpus (27)

• Cosmic Reionization and Early Star-Forming Galaxies: A Joint Analysis of New Constraints from Planck and Hubble Space Telescope
• The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function Over the First Two Billion Years
• The Frontier Fields: Survey Design
• The Dearth of z~10 Galaxies in all HST Legacy Fields -- The Rapid Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the First 500 Myr
• Directly Observing the Galaxies Likely Responsible for Reionization
• The z~6 Luminosity Function Fainter than -15 mag from the Hubble Frontier Fields: The Impact of Magnification Uncertainties
• Hubble Frontier Fields First Complete Cluster Data: Faint Galaxies at $z\sim 5-10$ for UV Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Reionization
• New redshift z ~ 9 galaxies in the Hubble Frontier Fields: Implications for early evolution of the UV luminosity density
• New Constraints on the Faint-end of the UV Luminosity Function at z~7-8 using the Gravitational Lensing of the Hubble Frontier Fields Cluster A2744
• z~2-9 Galaxies Magnified by the Hubble Frontier Field Clusters II: Luminosity Functions and Constraints on a Faint-End Turnover
• The sizes of $z\sim 6-8$ lensed galaxies from the Hubble Frontier Fields Abell 2744 data
• Early Low-Mass Galaxies and Star-Cluster Candidates at z~6-9 Identified by the Gravitational Lensing Technique and Deep Optical/Near-Infrared Imaging
• How robustly can we constrain the low-mass end of the $z\sim 6-7$ stellar mass function? -- The limits of lensing models and stellar population assumptions in the Hubble Frontier Fields
• Young Galaxy Candidates in the Hubble Frontier Fields. II. MACS,J0416-2403
• RELICS: Strong Lensing Analysis of MACS J0417.5-1154 and Predictions for Observing the Magnified High-Redshift Universe with JWST
• Simulating JWST deep extragalactic imaging surveys and physical parameter recovery
• A Flexible Analytic Model of Cosmic Variance in the First Billion Years
• RELICS: High-Resolution Constraints on the Inner Mass Distribution of the z=0.83 Merging Cluster RXJ0152.7-1357 from strong lensing
• On the Significance of Rare Objects at High Redshift: The Impact of Cosmic Variance
• The clustering of $z>7$ galaxies: Predictions from the BLUETIDES simulation
• The UV luminosity functions of Bright z>8 Galaxies: Determination from ~0.41 deg2 of HST Observations along ~sim 300 independent sightlines
• SXDF-ALMA 2 Arcmin^2 Deep Survey: Resolving and Characterizing the Infrared Extragalactic Background Light Down to 0.5 mJy
• Geometric Corroboration of the Earliest Lensed Galaxy at z~10.8 from Robust Free-Form Modelling
• ALMA 26 arcmin${}^2$ survey of GOODS-S at one-millimeter (ASAGAO): millimeter properties of stellar mass selected galaxies
• Joint Strong and Weak Lensing Analysis of the Massive Cluster Field J0850+3604
• Cosmic Variance and the Inhomogeneous UV Luminosity Function of Galaxies During Reionization
• The BUFFALO HST Survey