Abstract
In this paper, we describe the routine photometric calibration of data taken with the VISTA infrared camera (VIRCAM) instrument on the ESO Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ...(VISTA) telescope. The broad-band ZYJHKs data are directly calibrated from Two Micron all Sky Survey (2MASS) point sources visible in every VISTA image. We present the empirical transformations between the 2MASS and VISTA, and Wide-Field Camera and VISTA, photometric systems for regions of low reddening. We investigate the long-term performance of VISTA+VIRCAM. An investigation of the dependence of the photometric calibration on interstellar reddening leads to these conclusions: (1) For all broad-band filters, a linear colour-dependent correction compensates the gross effects of reddening where E(B − V) < 5.0. (2) For Z and Y, there is a significantly larger scatter above E(B − V) = 5.0, and insufficient measurements to adequately constrain the relation beyond this value. (3) The JHKs filters can be corrected to a few per cent up to E(B − V) = 10.0. We analyse spatial systematics over month-long time-scales, both inter- and intradetector and show that these are present only at very low levels in VISTA. We monitor and remove residual detector-to-detector offsets. We compare the calibration of the main pipeline products: pawprints and tiles. We show how variable seeing and transparency affect the final calibration accuracy of VISTA tiles, and discuss a technique, grouting, for mitigating these effects. Comparison between repeated reference fields is used to demonstrate that the VISTA photometry is precise to better than ≃ 2 per cent for the YJHKs bands and 3 per cent for the Z bands. Finally, we present empirically determined offsets to transform VISTA magnitudes into a true Vega system.
The potential for Planck to detect clusters of dusty, star-forming galaxies at z > 1 is tested by examining the Herschel-SPIRE images of Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalog sources lying in ...fields observed by the Herschel Multitiered Extragalactic Survey. Of the 16 Planck sources that lie in the ∼90 sq. deg. examined, we find that 12 are associated with single bright Herschel sources. The remaining four are associated with overdensities of Herschel sources, making them candidate clusters of dusty, star-forming galaxies. We use complementary optical/near-IR data for these 'clumps' to test this idea, and find evidence for the presence of galaxy clusters in all four cases. We use photometric redshifts and red sequence galaxies to estimate the redshifts of these clusters, finding that they range from 0.8 to 2.3. These redshifts imply that the Herschel sources in these clusters, which contribute to the detected Planck flux, are forming stars very rapidly, with typical total cluster star formation rates >1000 M yr−1. The high-redshift clusters discovered in these observations are used to constrain the epoch of cluster galaxy formation, finding that the galaxies in our clusters are 1-1.5 Gyr old at z ∼ 1-2. Prospects for the discovery of further clusters of dusty galaxies are discussed, using not only all sky Planck surveys, but also deeper, smaller area, Herschel surveys.
HELP: the Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project Shirley, R; Duncan, K; Campos Varillas, M C ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
10/2021, Letnik:
507, Številka:
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ABSTRACT
We present the Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project (HELP). This project collates, curates, homogenizes, and creates derived data products for most of the premium multiwavelength ...extragalactic data sets. The sky boundaries for the first data release cover 1270 deg2 defined by the Herschel SPIRE extragalactic survey fields; notably the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) and the Herschel Atlas survey (H-ATLAS). Here, we describe the motivation and principal elements in the design of the project. Guiding principles are transparent or ‘open’ methodologies with care for reproducibility and identification of provenance. A key element of the design focuses around the homogenization of calibration, meta data, and the provision of information required to define the selection of the data for statistical analysis. We apply probabilistic methods that extract information directly from the images at long wavelengths, exploiting the prior information available at shorter wavelengths and providing full posterior distributions rather than maximum-likelihood estimates and associated uncertainties as in traditional catalogues. With this project definition paper, we provide full access to the first data release of HELP; Data Release 1 (DR1), including a monolithic map of the largest SPIRE extragalactic field at 385 deg2 and 18 million measurements of PACS and SPIRE fluxes. We also provide tools to access and analyse the full HELP data base. This new data set includes far-infrared photometry, photometric redshifts, and derived physical properties estimated from modelling the spectral energy distributions over the full HELP sky. All the software and data presented is publicly available.
Abstract
The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) is a legacy programme designed to map a set of nested fields totalling ∼380 deg2. Fields range in size from 0.01 to ∼20 deg2, using ...the Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) (at 250, 350 and 500 μm) and the Herschel-Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) (at 100 and 160 μm), with an additional wider component of 270 deg2 with SPIRE alone. These bands cover the peak of the redshifted thermal spectral energy distribution from interstellar dust and thus capture the reprocessed optical and ultraviolet radiation from star formation that has been absorbed by dust, and are critical for forming a complete multiwavelength understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
The survey will detect of the order of 100 000 galaxies at 5σ in some of the best-studied fields in the sky. Additionally, HerMES is closely coordinated with the PACS Evolutionary Probe survey. Making maximum use of the full spectrum of ancillary data, from radio to X-ray wavelengths, it is designed to facilitate redshift determination, rapidly identify unusual objects and understand the relationships between thermal emission from dust and other processes. Scientific questions HerMES will be used to answer include the total infrared emission of galaxies, the evolution of the luminosity function, the clustering properties of dusty galaxies and the properties of populations of galaxies which lie below the confusion limit through lensing and statistical techniques.
This paper defines the survey observations and data products, outlines the primary scientific goals of the HerMES team, and reviews some of the early results.
Studying quasars at the highest redshifts can constrain models of galaxy and black hole formation, and it also probes the intergalactic medium in the early universe. Optical surveys have to date ...discovered more than 60 quasars up to z Asymptotically = to 6.4, a limit set by the use of the z-band and CCD detectors. Only one z gap 6.4 quasar has been discovered, namely the z = 7.08 quasar ULAS J1120+0641, using near-infrared imaging. Here we report the discovery of three new z gap 6.4 quasars in 332 deg super(2) of the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey, thus extending the number from 1 to 4. The newly discovered quasars have redshifts of z = 6.60, 6.75, and 6.89. The absolute magnitudes are between -26.0 and -25.5, 0.6-1.1 mag fainter than ULAS J1120+0641. Near-infrared spectroscopy revealed the Mg II emission line in all three objects. The quasars are powered by black holes with masses of ~(1-2) x 10 super(9) M sub(middot in circle). In our probed redshift range of 6.44 < z < 7.44 we can set a lower limit on the space density of supermassive black holes of rho(M sub(BH) > 10 super(9) M sub(middot in circle)) > 1.1 x 10 super(-9) Mpc super(-3). The discovery of three quasars in our survey area is consistent with the z = 6 quasar luminosity function when extrapolated to z ~ 7. We do not find evidence for a steeper decline in the space density of quasars with increasing redshift from z = 6 to z = 7.
Massive present-day early-type (elliptical and lenticular) galaxies probably gained the bulk of their stellar mass and heavy elements through intense, dust-enshrouded starbursts--that is, increased ...rates of star formation--in the most massive dark-matter haloes at early epochs. However, it remains unknown how soon after the Big Bang massive starburst progenitors exist. The measured redshift (z) distribution of dusty, massive starbursts has long been suspected to be biased low in z owing to selection effects, as confirmed by recent findings of systems with redshifts as high as ~5 (refs 2-4). Here we report the identification of a massive starburst galaxy at z = 6.34 through a submillimetre colour-selection technique. We unambiguously determined the redshift from a suite of molecular and atomic fine-structure cooling lines. These measurements reveal a hundred billion solar masses of highly excited, chemically evolved interstellar medium in this galaxy, which constitutes at least 40 per cent of the baryonic mass. A 'maximum starburst' converts the gas into stars at a rate more than 2,000 times that of the Milky Way, a rate among the highest observed at any epoch. Despite the overall downturn in cosmic star formation towards the highest redshifts, it seems that environments mature enough to form the most massive, intense starbursts existed at least as early as 880 million years after the Big Bang.
In this paper, we describe the first data release of the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey. VIDEO is a ∼12 deg2 survey in the ...near-infrared Z, Y, J, H and K
s bands, specifically designed to enable the evolution of galaxies and large structures to be traced as a function of both epoch and environment from the present day out to z = 4, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the most massive galaxies up to and into the epoch of reionization. With its depth and area, VIDEO will be able to fully explore the period in the Universe where AGN and starburst activity were at their peak and the first galaxy clusters were beginning to virialize. VIDEO therefore offers a unique data set with which to investigate the interplay between AGN, starbursts and environment, and the role of feedback at a time when it was potentially most crucial.
We provide data over the VIDEO-XMM3 tile, which also covers the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep-1 field (CFHTLS-D1). The released VIDEO data reach a 5σ AB-magnitude depth of Z = 25.7, Y = 24.5, J = 24.4, H = 24.1 and K
s = 23.8 in 2 arcsec diameter apertures (the full depth of Y = 24.6 will be reached within the full integration time in future releases). The data are compared to previous surveys over this field and we find good astrometric agreement with the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and source counts in agreement with the recently released UltraVISTA survey data. The addition of the VIDEO data to the CFHTLS-D1 optical data increases the accuracy of photometric redshifts and significantly reduces the fraction of catastrophic outliers over the redshift range 0 < z < 1 from 5.8 to 3.1 per cent in the absence of an i-band luminosity prior. However, we expect that the main improvement in photometric redshifts will come in the redshift range 1 < z < 4 due to the sensitivity to the Balmer and 4000 Å breaks provided by the near-infrared VISTA filters. All images and catalogues presented in this paper are publicly available through ESO's phase 3 archive and the VISTA Science Archive.
In this work, we explore the impact of the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) on the mid- and far-infrared (IR) properties of galaxies as well as the effects of simultaneous AGN and ...starburst activity in the same galaxies. To do this, we apply a multicomponent, multiband spectral synthesis technique to a sample of 250 μm selected galaxies of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES), with Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra available for all galaxies. Our results confirm that the inclusion of the IRS spectra plays a crucial role in the spectral analysis of galaxies with an AGN component improving the selection of the best-fitting hot dust (torus) model.
We find a correlation between the obscured star formation rate, SFRIR, derived from the IR luminosity of the starburst component, and SFRPAH, derived from the luminosity of the PAH features, L
PAH, with SFRFIR taking higher values than SFRPAH. The correlation is different for AGN- and starburst-dominated objects. The ratio of L
PAH to that of the starburst component, L
PAH/L
SB, is almost constant for AGN-dominated objects but decreases with increasing L
SB for starburst-dominated objects. SFRFIR increases with the accretion luminosity, L
acc, with the increase less prominent for the very brightest, unobscured AGN-dominated sources.
We find no correlation between the masses of the hot (AGN-heated) and cold (starburst-heated) dust components. We interpret this as a non-constant fraction of gas driven by the gravitational effects to the AGN while the starburst is ongoing. We also find no evidence of the AGN affecting the temperature of the cold dust component, though this conclusion is mostly based on objects with a non-dominant AGN component. We conclude that our findings do not provide evidence that the presence of AGN affects the star formation process in the host galaxy, but rather that the two phenomena occur simultaneously over a wide range of luminosities.
Following on from the second release of calibrated photometry from IPHAS, the INT/WFC Photometric Hα Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane, we present incompleteness-corrected stellar density maps in ...the r and i photometric bands. These have been computed to a range of limiting magnitudes reaching to 20th magnitude in r and 19th in i (Vega system), and with different angular resolutions – the highest resolution available being 1 arcmin2. The maps obtained cover 94 per cent of the 1800 square degree IPHAS footprint, spanning the Galactic latitude range, −5° < b < +5°, north of the celestial equator. The corrections for incompleteness, due to confusion and sensitivity loss at the faint limit, have been deduced by the method of artificial source injection. The presentation of this method is preceded by a discussion of other more approximate methods of determining completeness. Our method takes full account of position-dependent seeing and source ellipticity in the survey data base. The application of the star counts to testing reddened Galactic disc models is previewed by a comparison with predicted counts along three constant-longitude cuts at ℓ ≃ 30°, 90° and 175°: some overprediction of the most heavily reddened ℓ ≃ 30° counts is found, alongside good agreement at ℓ ≃ 90° and 175°.
We present u-, g-, r-, i- and z-band optical images and associated catalogues taken primarily with the Isaac Newton Telescope Wide Field Camera on the European Large Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) N1 and ...N2, First Look Survey and Lockman Hole fields comprising a total of 1000 h of integration time over 80 deg2 and approximately 4.3 million objects. In this paper we outline the observations and data processing and characterize the completeness, reliability, photometric and astrometric accuracy of this data set. All images have been photometrically calibrated using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and a uniform and homogeneous data set is composed over all the observed fields. Magnitude limits are u, g, r, i, z of 23.9, 24.5, 24.0, 23.3, 22.0 (AB, 5σ). These data have been used for optical identification of past and ongoing projects including the surveys ELAIS, Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey, Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey and Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey.
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