2004/01/31 by R. C. Smith, R. E. Smith, H. Dahle +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/425643
published as Astrophys.J. 617 (2004) 811-828 · Replaced with version accepted for publication in ApJ. Text reduced. Science unchanged
arxiv created 2004/09/08 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present results from a spectroscopic study of ~4000 galaxies in a ~6.2 deg 2 field in the direction of the Aquarius supercluster and a smaller typical field region in Cetus, down to R < 19.5. Galaxy redshifts were measured using the Two Degree Field system on the Anglo-Australian Telescope and form part of our wider efforts to conduct a spectrophotometric and weak gravitational lensing study of these regions. At the magnitude limit of the survey, we are capable of probing L * galaxies out to z ~ 0.4. We construct median spectra as a function of various survey parameters as a diagnostic of the quality of the sample. We use the redshift data to identify galaxy clusters and groups within the survey volume. In the Aquarius region, we find a total of 48 clusters and groups, of which 26 are previously unknown systems, and in Cetus we find 14 clusters and groups, of which 12 are new. We estimate centroid redshifts and velocity dispersions for all these systems. In the Aquarius region, we see a superposition of two strong superclusters at z = 0.08 and 0.11, both of which have estimated masses and overdensities similar to those in the Corona Borealis supercluster.