Description
We present results from a spectroscopic program targeting 26 strong-lensing cluster cores that were visually identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; Gladders et al. 2011, in prep) and the Second Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS-2; Bayliss et al. 2011, in prep). The 26 galaxy cluster lenses span a redshift range of 0.2<z<0.65, and our spectroscopy reveals 69 unique background sources with redshifts as high as z=5.200. We also identify redshifts for 262 cluster member galaxies and measure the velocity dispersions and dynamical masses for 18 clusters where we have redshifts for N>=10 cluster member galaxies. We account for the expected biases in dynamical masses of strong-lensing-selected clusters as predicted by results from numerical simulations and discuss possible sources of bias in our observations.
|