Submillimeter imaging of RCS J022434-0002.5: Intense activity in a high-redshift cluster?

We present deep 850 mu m imaging of the z = 0.773 strong lensing galaxy cluster RCS J022434-0002.5 from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey (RCS). These data are part of a larger submillimeter survey of RCS clusters with SCUBA on the JCMT. We find five objects at 850 mu m, all of which are also detected at either 1.4 GHz or 450 mu m, or both. The number density of objects in this field is in general agreement with the blank-field source counts; however, when combined with other cluster surveys a general tendency of cluster fields toward higher submillimeter number densities is seen, which may be the result of unrecognized submillimeter luminous cluster galaxies. Primarily employing optical photometric redshifts, we show that two of the five submillimeter galaxies in this field are consistent with being cluster members, while two are more likely background systems.