We use a mass complete (log( ) ) sample of galaxies with accurate photometric redshifts in the COSMOS field to construct the density field and the cosmic web to z = 1.2. The comic web extraction ...relies on the density field Hessian matrix and breaks the density field into clusters, filaments, and the field. We provide the density field and cosmic web measures to the community. We show that at z 0.8, the median star formation rate (SFR) in the cosmic web gradually declines from the field to clusters and this decline is especially sharp for satellites (∼1 dex versus ∼0.5 dex for centrals). However, at z 0.8, the trend flattens out for the overall galaxy population and satellites. For star-forming (SF) galaxies only, the median SFR is constant at z 0.5 but declines by ∼0.3-0.4 dex from the field to clusters for satellites and centrals at z 0.5. We argue that for satellites, the main role of the cosmic web environment is to control their SF fraction, whereas for centrals, it is mainly to control their overall SFR at z 0.5 and to set their fraction at z 0.5. We suggest that most satellites experience a rapid quenching mechanism as they fall from the field into clusters through filaments, whereas centrals mostly undergo a slow environmental quenching at z 0.5 and a fast mechanism at higher redshifts. Our preliminary results highlight the importance of the large-scale cosmic web on galaxy evolution.
We present a WFC3 F160W (H-band) selected catalog in the CANDELS/GOODS-N field containing photometry from the ultraviolet (UV) to the far-infrared (IR), photometric redshifts, and stellar parameters ...derived from the analysis of the multiwavelength data. The catalog contains 35,445 sources over the 171 arcmin2 of the CANDELS F160W mosaic. The 5 detection limits (within an aperture of radius 0 17) of the mosaic range between H = 27.8, 28.2, and 28.7 in the wide, intermediate, and deep regions, which span approximately 50%, 15%, and 35% of the total area. The multiwavelength photometry includes broadband data from the UV (U band from KPNO and LBC), optical (HST/ACS F435W, F606W, F775W, F814W, and F850LP), near-to-mid IR (HST/WFC3 F105W, F125W, F140W, and F160W; Subaru/MOIRCS Ks; CFHT/Megacam K; and Spitzer/IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 m), and far-IR (Spitzer/MIPS 24 m, HERSCHEL/PACS 100 and 160 m, SPIRE 250, 350 and 500 m) observations. In addition, the catalog also includes optical medium-band data (R ∼ 50) in 25 consecutive bands, λ = 500-950 nm, from the SHARDS survey and WFC3 IR spectroscopic observations with the G102 and G141 grisms (R ∼ 210 and 130). The use of higher spectral resolution data to estimate photometric redshifts provides very high, and nearly uniform, precision from z = 0-2.5. The comparison to 1485 good-quality spectroscopic redshifts up to z ∼ 3 yields Δz/(1 + zspec) = 0.0032 and an outlier fraction of = 4.3%. In addition to the multiband photometry, we release value-added catalogs with emission-line fluxes, stellar masses, dust attenuations, UV- and IR-based star formation rates, and rest-frame colors.
Abstract
The study of galaxy evolution hinges on our ability to interpret multiwavelength galaxy observations in terms of their physical properties. To do this, we rely on spectral energy ...distribution (SED) models, which allow us to infer physical parameters from spectrophotometric data. In recent years, thanks to wide and deep multiwave band galaxy surveys, the volume of high-quality data have significantly increased. Alongside the increased data, algorithms performing SED fitting have improved, including better modeling prescriptions, newer templates, and more extensive sampling in wavelength space. We present a comprehensive analysis of different SED-fitting codes including their methods and output with the aim of measuring the uncertainties caused by the modeling assumptions. We apply 14 of the most commonly used SED-fitting codes on samples from the CANDELS photometric catalogs at
z
∼ 1 and
z
∼ 3. We find agreement on the stellar mass, while we observe some discrepancies in the star formation rate (SFR) and dust-attenuation results. To explore the differences and biases among the codes, we explore the impact of the various modeling assumptions as they are set in the codes (e.g., star formation histories, nebular, dust and active galactic nucleus models) on the derived stellar masses, SFRs, and
A
V
values. We then assess the difference among the codes on the SFR–stellar mass relation and we measure the contribution to the uncertainties by the modeling choices (i.e., the modeling uncertainties) in stellar mass (∼0.1 dex), SFR (∼0.3 dex), and dust attenuation (∼0.3 mag). Finally, we present some resources summarizing best practices in SED fitting.
We present an analysis of 15 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) at redshift (9 at ) recently discovered in the CANDELS and CLASH Multi-Cycle Treasury programs using WFC3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. We ...combine these SNe Ia with a new compilation of ∼1050 SNe Ia, jointly calibrated and corrected for simulated survey biases to produce accurate distance measurements. We present unbiased constraints on the expansion rate at six redshifts in the range based only on this combined SN Ia sample. The added leverage of our new sample at leads to a factor of ∼3 improvement in the determination of the expansion rate at z = 1.5, reducing its uncertainty to ∼20%, a measurement of . We then demonstrate that these six derived expansion rate measurements alone provide a nearly identical characterization of dark energy as the full SN sample, making them an efficient compression of the SN Ia data. The new sample of SNe Ia at usefully distinguishes between alternative cosmological models and unmodeled evolution of the SN Ia distance indicators, placing empirical limits on the latter. Finally, employing a realistic simulation of a potential Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope SN survey observing strategy, we forecast optimistic future constraints on the expansion rate from SNe Ia.
In order for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) and other stage IV dark energy experiments (e.g., Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, LSST; and Euclid) to infer cosmological parameters ...not limited by systematic errors, accurate redshift measurements are needed. This accuracy can be met by using spectroscopic subsamples to calibrate the photometric redshifts for the full sample. In this work, we find the minimal number of spectra required for the WFIRST weak-lensing redshift calibration by employing the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) spectroscopic sampling technique. We use galaxies from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) to build the LSST+WFIRST lensing analog sample of ∼36,000 objects and to train the LSST+WFIRST SOM. We find that 26% of the WFIRST lensing sample consists of sources fainter than the Euclid depth in the optical, 91% of which live in color cells already occupied by brighter galaxies. We demonstrate the similarity between faint and bright galaxies as well as the feasibility of redshift measurements at different brightness levels. Our results suggest that the spectroscopic sample acquired for calibration to the Euclid depth is sufficient for calibrating the majority of the WFIRST color space. For the spectroscopic sample to fully represent the synthetic color space of WFIRST, we recommend obtaining additional spectroscopy of ∼0.2-1.2k new sources in cells occupied by mostly faint galaxies. We argue that either the small area of the CANDELS fields and the small overall sample size or the large photometric errors might be the reason for no/fewer bright galaxies mapped to these cells. Acquiring the spectra of these sources will confirm the above findings and will enable the comprehensive calibration of the WFIRST color-redshift relation.
Using the CANDELS photometric catalogs for the Hubble Space Telescope/ACS and WFC3, we identified massive evolved galaxies at 3 < z < 4.5 employing three different selection methods. We find the ...comoving number density of these objects to be ∼2 × 10−5 and 8 × 10−6 Mpc−3 after correction for completeness for two redshift bins centered at z = 3.4, 4.7. We quantify a measure of how much confidence we should have for each candidate galaxy from different selections and what the conservative error estimates propagated into our selection are. Then we compare the evolution of the corresponding number densities and their stellar mass density with numerical simulations, semianalytical models, and previous observational estimates, which shows slight tension at higher redshifts as the models tend to underestimate the number and mass densities. By estimating the average halo masses of the candidates (Mh 4.2, 1.9, and 1.3 × 1012 M for redshift bins centered at z = 3.4, 4.1, and 4.7), we find them to be consistent with halos that were efficient in turning baryons to stars, relatively immune to the feedback effects, and on the verge of transition into hot-mode accretion. This can suggest the relative cosmological starvation of the cold gas followed by an overconsumption phase in which the galaxy rapidly consumes the available cold gas as one of the possible drivers for the quenching of the massive evolved population at high redshift.
We report the spectroscopic confirmation of a new protocluster in the COSMOS field at z ∼ 2.2, COSMOS Cluster 2.2 (CC2.2), originally identified as an overdensity of narrowband selected H emitting ...candidates. With only two masks of Keck/MOSFIRE near-IR spectroscopy in both H (∼1.47-1.81 m) and K (∼1.92-2.40 m) bands (∼1.5 hr each), we confirm 35 unique protocluster members with at least two emission lines detected with S/N > 3. Combined with 12 extra members from the zCOSMOS-deep spectroscopic survey (47 in total), we estimate a mean redshift and a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of zmean = 2.23224 0.00101 and los = 645 69 km s−1 for this protocluster, respectively. Assuming virialization and spherical symmetry for the system, we estimate a total mass of Mvir ∼ (1-2) ×1014M for the structure. We evaluate a number density enhancement of δg ∼ 7 for this system and we argue that the structure is likely not fully virialized at z ∼ 2.2. However, in a spherical collapse model, δg is expected to grow to a linear matter enhancement of ∼1.9 by z = 0, exceeding the collapse threshold of 1.69, and leading to a fully collapsed and virialized Coma-type structure with a total mass of Mdyn(z = 0) ∼ 9.2 × 1014M by now. This observationally efficient confirmation suggests that large narrowband emission-line galaxy surveys, when combined with ancillary photometric data, can be used to effectively trace the large-scale structure and protoclusters at a time when they are mostly dominated by star-forming galaxies.
We show that unsupervised machine learning techniques are a valuable tool for both visualizing and computationally accelerating the estimation of galaxy physical properties from photometric data. As ...a proof of concept, we use self-organizing maps (SOMs) to visualize a spectral energy distribution (SED) model library in the observed photometry space. The resulting visual maps allow for a better understanding of how the observed data maps to physical properties and allows for better optimization of the model libraries for a given set of observational data. Next, the SOMs are used to estimate the physical parameters of 14,000 z ∼ 1 galaxies in the COSMOS field and are found to be in agreement with those measured with SED fitting. However, the SOM method is able to estimate the full probability distribution functions for each galaxy up to ∼106 times faster than direct model fitting. We conclude by discussing how this acceleration, as well as learning how the galaxy data manifold maps to physical parameter space and visualizing this mapping in lower dimensions, helps overcome other challenges in galaxy formation and evolution.
ABSTRACT We investigate the resolved kiloparsec-scale stellar and nebular dust distribution in eight star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 0.4 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey fields. This is to ...get a better understanding of the effect of dust attenuation on measurements of physical properties and its variation with redshift. Constructing the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) per pixel, based on seven bands of photometric data from Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys and WFC3, we performed pixel-by-pixel SED fits to population synthesis models and estimated the small-scale distribution of stellar dust extinction. We use H /Hβ nebular emission line ratios from Keck/DEIMOS high-resolution spectra at each spatial resolution element to measure the amount of attenuation faced by ionized gas at different radii from the centers of galaxies. We find a good agreement between the integrated and median of resolved color excess measurements in our galaxies. The ratio of integrated nebular to stellar dust extinction is always greater than unity, but does not show any trend with stellar mass or star formation rate (SFR). We find that inclination plays an important role in the variation of the nebular to stellar excess ratio. The stellar color excess profiles are found to have higher values at the center compared to outer parts of the disk. However, for lower mass galaxies, a similar trend is not found for the nebular color excess. We find that the nebular color excess increases with stellar mass surface density. This explains the absence of radial trend in the nebular color excess in lower mass galaxies which lack a large radial variation of stellar mass surface density. Using standard conversions of SFR surface density to gas mass surface density, and the relation between dust mass surface density and color excess, we find no significant variation in the dust-to-gas ratio in regions with high gas mass surface densities over the scales probed in this study.
Abstract To study the role of environment in galaxy evolution, we reconstruct the underlying density field of galaxies based on COSMOS2020 (The Farmer catalog) and provide the density catalog for a ...magnitude-limited ( K s < 24.5) sample of ∼210,000 galaxies at 0.4 < z < 5 within the COSMOS field. The environmental densities are calculated using a weighted kernel density estimation approach with the choice of a von Mises–Fisher kernel, an analog of the Gaussian kernel for periodic data. Additionally, we make corrections for the edge effect and masked regions in the field. We utilize physical properties extracted by LePhare to investigate the connection between star formation activity and the environmental density of galaxies in six mass-complete subsamples at different cosmic epochs within 0.4 < z < 4. Our findings confirm a strong anticorrelation between star formation rate (SFR)/specific SFR (sSFR) and environmental density out to z ∼ 1.1. At 1.1 < z < 2, there is no significant correlation between SFR/sSFR and density. At 2 < z < 4, we observe a reversal of the SFR/sSFR–density relation such that both SFR and sSFR increase by a factor of ∼10 with increasing density contrast, δ , from −0.4 to 5. This observed reversal at higher redshifts supports the scenario where an increased availability of gas supply, along with tidal interactions and a generally higher star formation efficiency in dense environments, could potentially enhance star formation activity in galaxies located in rich environments at z > 2.
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