ABSTRACT
Galaxies represent one of the preferred candidate sources to drive the reionization of the universe. Even as gains are made in mapping the galaxy UV luminosity density to
, significant ...uncertainties remain regarding the conversion to the implied ionizing emissivity. The relevant unknowns are the Lyman-continuum (LyC) photon production efficiency
and the escape fraction
f
esc
. As we show here, the first of these unknowns is directly measurable in
z
= 4–5 galaxies based on the impact the H
α
line has on the observed IRAC fluxes. By computing a LyC photon production rate from the implied H
α
luminosities for a broad selection of
z
= 4–5 galaxies and comparing this against the dust-corrected UV-continuum luminosities, we provide the first-ever direct estimates of the LyC photon production efficiency
for the
galaxy population. We find
to have a mean value of
and
for sub-
L
*
z
= 4–5 galaxies adopting Calzetti and SMC dust laws, respectively. Reassuringly, both derived values are consistent with the standard assumed
's in reionization models, with a slight preference for higher
's (by ∼0.1 dex) adopting the SMC dust law. High values of
(∼25.5–25.8 dex) are derived for the bluest galaxies (
) in our samples, independent of dust law and consistent with results for a
z
= 7.045 galaxy. Such elevated values of
would have important consequences, indicating that
f
esc
cannot be in excess of 13% for standard assumptions about the faint-end cut-off to the LF and the clumping factor.
The remarkable Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data sets from the CANDELS, HUDF09, HUDF12, ERS, and BoRG/HIPPIES programs have allowed us to map the evolution of the rest-frame UV luminosity function ...(LF) from z ~ 10 to z ~ 4. We develop new color criteria that more optimally utilize the full wavelength coverage from the optical, near-IR, and mid-IR observations over our search fields, while simultaneously minimizing the incompleteness and eliminating redshift gaps. We have identified 5859, 3001, 857, 481, 217, and 6 galaxy candidates at z ~ 4, z ~ 5, z ~ 6, z ~ 7, z ~ 7, and z ~ 10, respectively, from the ~1000 arcmin super(2) area covered by these data sets. This sample of >10,000 galaxy candidates at z > or =, slanted 4 is by far the largest assembled to date with HST. The selection of z ~ 4-8 candidates over the five CANDELS fields allows us to assess the cosmic variance; the largest variations are at z > or =, slanted 7. Our new LF determinations at z ~ 4 and z ~ 5 span a 6 mag baseline and reach to -16 AB mag. These determinations agree well with previous estimates, but the larger samples and volumes probed here result in a more reliable sampling of >L* galaxies and allow us to reassess the form of the UV LFs. Our new LF results strengthen our earlier findings to 3.4sigma significance for a steeper faint-end slope of the UV LF at z > 4, with alpha evolving from alpha = -1.64 + or - 0.04 at z ~ 4 to alpha = -2.06 + or - 0.13 at z ~ 7 (and alpha = -2.02 + or - 0.23 at z ~ 8), consistent with that expected from the evolution of the halo mass function. We find less evolution in the characteristic magnitude M* from z ~ 7 to z ~ 4; the observed evolution in the LF is now largely represented by changes in phi*. No evidence for a non-Schechter-like form to the z ~ 4-8 LFs is found. A simple conditional LF model based on halo growth and evolution in the M/L ratio (is proportional to(1 + z) super(-1.5)) of halos provides a good representation of the observed evolution.
ABSTRACT The Large Early Galaxy Census (LEGA-C) is a Public Spectroscopic Survey of ∼3200 K-band selected galaxies at redshifts z = 0.6 − 1.0 with stellar masses M * > 10 10 M , conducted with VIMOS ...on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The survey is embedded in the COSMOS field (R.A. = 10h00; decl . = + 2 deg ). The 20 hr long integrations produce high-signal-to-noise ratio continuum spectra that reveal ages, metallicities and velocity dispersions of the stellar populations. LEGA-C's unique combination of sample size and depth will enable us for the first time to map the stellar content at large lookback time, across galaxies of different types and star formation activity. Observations started in 2014 December and are planned to be completed by mid 2018, with early data releases of the spectra and value-added products. In this paper we present the science case, the observing strategy, an overview of the data reduction process and data products, and a first look at the relationship between galaxy structure and spectral properties, as it existed 7 Gyr ago.
The IRAC ultradeep field and IRAC Legacy over GOODS programs are two ultradeep imaging surveys at 3.6 and 4.5 mum with the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). The primary aim is to directly detect ...the infrared light of reionization epoch galaxies at z > 7 and to constrain their stellar populations. The observations cover the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), including the two HUDF parallel fields, and the CANDELS/GOODS-South, and are combined with archival data from all previous deep programs into one ultradeep data set. The resulting imaging reaches unprecedented coverage in IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 mum ranging from >50 hr over 150 arcmin super(2), >100 hr over 60 sq arcmin super(2), to ~200 hr over 5-10 arcmin super(2). This paper presents the survey description, data reduction, and public release of reduced mosaics on the same astrometric system as the CANDELS/GOODS-South Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) data. To facilitate prior-based WFC3+IRAC photometry, we introduce a new method to create high signal-to-noise PSFs from the IRAC data and reconstruct the complex spatial variation due to survey geometry. The PSF maps are included in the release, as are registered maps of subsets of the data to enable reliability and variability studies. Simulations show that the noise in the ultradeep IRAC images decreases approximately as the square root of integration time over the range 20-200 hr, well below the classical confusion limit, reaching 1sigma point-source sensitivities as faint as 15 nJy (28.5 AB) at 3.6 mum and 18 nJy (28.3 AB) at 4.5 mum. The value of such ultradeep IRAC data is illustrated by direct detections of z = 7-8 galaxies as faint as H sub(AB) = 28.
ABSTRACT We present Hubble WFC3/IR slitless grism spectra of a remarkably bright z 10 galaxy candidate, GN-z11, identified initially from CANDELS/GOODS-N imaging data. A significant spectroscopic ...continuum break is detected at . The new grism data, combined with the photometric data, rule out all plausible lower redshift solutions for this source. The only viable solution is that this continuum break is the Ly break redshifted to , just ∼400 Myr after the Big Bang. This observation extends the current spectroscopic frontier by 150 Myr to well before the Planck (instantaneous) cosmic reionization peak at z ∼ 8.8, demonstrating that galaxy build-up was well underway early in the reionization epoch at z > 10. GN-z11 is remarkably, and unexpectedly, luminous for a galaxy at such an early time: its UV luminosity is 3× larger than measured at z ∼ 6−8. The Spitzer IRAC detections up to 4.5 m of this galaxy are consistent with a stellar mass of ∼109 M . This spectroscopic redshift measurement suggests that James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to similarly and easily confirm such sources at z > 10 and characterize their physical properties through detailed spectroscopy. Furthermore, WFIRST, with its wide-field near-IR imaging, would find large numbers of similar galaxies and contribute greatly to JWST's spectroscopy, if it is launched early enough to overlap with JWST.
We measure the UV-continuum slope beta for over 4000 high-redshift galaxies over a wide range of redshifts z ~ 4-8 and luminosities from the HST HUDF/XDF, HUDF09-1, HUDF09-2, ERS, CANDELS-N, and ...CANDELS-S data sets. Inconsistencies between previous studies led us to conduct a comprehensive review of systematic errors and develop a new technique for measuring beta that is robust against biases that arise from the impact of noise. We demonstrate, by object-by-object comparisons, that all previous studies, including our own and those done on the latest HUDF12 data set, suffered from small systematic errors in beta. At z ~ 7, the observed beta's suggest non-zero, but low dust extinction, and they agree well with values predicted in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations.
The extreme Deep Field (XDF) combines data from 10 years of observations with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide-Field Camera 3 Infra-Red (WFC3/IR) into the ...deepest image of the sky ever in the optical/near-IR. Since the initial observations of the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF) in 2003, numerous surveys and programs, including supernovae follow-up, HUDF09, CANDELS, and HUDF12, have contributed additional imaging data across this region. However, these images have never been combined and made available as one complete ultra-deep image dataset. We combine them now with the XDF program. Our new and improved processing techniques provide higher quality reductions of the total dataset. All WFC3/IR and optical ACS data sets have been fully combined and accurately matched, resulting in the deepest imaging ever taken at these wavelengths, ranging from 29.1 to 30.3 AB mag (5sigma in a 0".35 diameter aperture) in 9 filters. The combined image therefore reaches to 31.2 AB mag 5sigma (32.9 at 1sigma) for a flat functionof sub(nu) source. The gains in the optical for the four filters done in the original ACS HUDF correspond to a typical improvement of 0.15 mag, with gains of 0.25 mag in the deepest areas. Such gains are equivalent to adding ~130 to ~240 orbits of ACS data to the HUDF. Improved processing alone results in a typical gain of ~0.1 mag. Our 5sigma (optical+near-IR) SExtractor catalogs reveal about 14,140 sources in the full field and about 7121 galaxies in the deepest part of the XDF.
We present a comprehensive analysis of z > 8 galaxies based on ultra-deep WFC3/IR data. We exploit all the WFC3/IR imaging over the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field from the HUDF09 and the new HUDF12 program, ...in addition to the HUDF09 parallel field data, as well as wider area imaging over GOODS-South. Galaxies are selected based on the Lyman break technique in three samples centered around z ~ 9, z ~ 10, and z ~ 11, with seven z ~ 9 galaxy candidates, and one each at z ~ 10 and z ~ 11. We confirm a new z ~ 10 candidate (with z = 9.8 + or - 0.6) that was not convincingly identified in our first z ~ 10 sample. Using these candidates, we perform one of the first estimates of the z ~ 9 UV luminosity function (LF) and improve our previous constraints at z ~ 10. Extrapolating the lower redshift UV LF evolution should have revealed 17 z ~ 9 and 9 z ~ 10 sources, i.e., a factor ~3x and 9 x larger than observed. The inferred star formation rate density (SFRD) in galaxies above 0.7 M sub(middot in circle) yr super(-1) decreases by 0.6 + or - 0.2 dex from z ~ 8 to z ~ 9, in excellent agreement with previous estimates. From a combination of all current measurements, we find a best estimate of a factor 10x decrease in the SFRD from z ~ 8 to z ~ 10, following (1 + z) super(-11.4+ or -3.1). Our measurements thus confirm our previous finding of an accelerated evolution beyond z ~ 8, and signify a very rapid build-up of galaxies with M sub(UV) < -17.7 mag within only ~200 Myr from z ~ 10 to z ~ 8, in the heart of cosmic reionization.
We identify 73 z ~ 7 and 59 z ~ 8 candidate galaxies in the reionization epoch, and use this large 26-29.4 AB mag sample of galaxies to derive very deep luminosity functions to < -- 18 AB mag and the ...star formation rate (SFR) density at z ~ 7 and z ~ 8 (just 800 Myr and 650 Myr after recombination, respectively). The galaxy sample is derived using a sophisticated Lyman-break technique on the full two-year Wide Field Camera 3/infrared (WFC3/IR) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) data available over the HUDF09 (~29.4 AB mag, 5 Delta *s), two nearby HUDF09 fields (~29 AB mag, 5 Delta *s, 14 arcmin2), and the wider area Early Release Science (~27.5 AB mag, 5 Delta *s, ~40 arcmin2). The application of strict optical non-detection criteria ensures the contamination fraction is kept low (just ~7% in the HUDF). This very low value includes a full assessment of the contamination from lower redshift sources, photometric scatter, active galactic nuclei, spurious sources, low-mass stars, and transients (e.g., supernovae). From careful modeling of the selection volumes for each of our search fields, we derive luminosity functions for galaxies at z ~ 7 and z ~ 8 to < -- 18 AB mag. The faint-end slopes Delta *a at z ~ 7 and z ~ 8 are uncertain but very steep at Delta *a = --2.01 ? 0.21 and Delta *a = --1.91 ? 0.32, respectively. Such steep slopes contrast to the local Delta *a --1.4 and may even be steeper than that at z ~ 4 where Delta *a = --1.73 ? 0.05. With such steep slopes ( Delta *a --1.7) lower luminosity galaxies dominate the galaxy luminosity density during the epoch of reionization. The SFR densities derived from these new z ~ 7 and z ~ 8 luminosity functions are consistent with the trends found at later times (lower redshifts). We find reasonable consistency with the SFR densities implied from reported stellar mass densities being only ~40% higher at z < 7. This suggests that (1) the stellar mass densities inferred from the Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) photometry are reasonably accurate and (2) that the initial mass function at very high redshift may not be very different from that at later times.
Spectroscopic + photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the ...galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early- and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R sub(eff) is proportional to (1 + z) super(-1.48), and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R sub(eff) is proportional to (1 + z) super(-0.75). The intrinsic scatter is lap0.2 dex for all galaxy types and redshifts. For late-type galaxies, the logarithmic size distribution is not symmetric but is skewed toward small sizes: at all redshifts and masses, a tail of small late-type galaxies exists that overlaps in size with the early-type galaxy population.
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