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M.D. Gladders (Dept. of Astronomy, U. of Toronto)
The Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS) is a new galaxy cluster survey designed to provide a large sample of optically selected 0.1\leqz\leq1.4 clusters. The planned survey data are 100 square degrees of two color (R and z') imaging, with a 5\sigma depth ~2 mag past M* at z=1. The primary scientific drivers of the survey are a derivation of \Omegam and \sigma8 (from N(M,z) for clusters) and a study of cluster-galaxy evolution with a complete sample. In this talk I will give a brief outline of the RCS survey parameters and sketch the methods by which we intend to pursue the main scientific goals, including an explicit calculation of the expected survey completeness limits. These calculations show that the survey should be complete, for all reasonable cluster models, for Abell Richness Class \geq 1 clusters (\sigmav\geq750) to at least z=1.1. The remainder of the talk will focus on preliminary results from the first set of completely reduced data (~30 deg2, of the ~60 deg2 in hand). These preliminary results provide new examples of rich z>1 clusters and a possible filament at z~1. I will also unveil several new examples of cluster strong lensing by clusters at z>0.5, including an extraordinary rich cluster at z~0.8 with four luminous arcs corresponding to several different background sources at different redshifts. Some of the possible science to come from the RCS will be illustrated by a derivation of the \Omegam,\sigma8 pair using only 1/10th of the survey data, and a calculation of the correlation function of luminous early-type galaxies to z~1.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://astro.utoronto.ca/~gladders/RCS/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.