We present a new near-infrared survey covering the 2 deg2 COSMOS field conducted using WIRCam at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. By combining our near-infrared data with Subaru B and z images, we ...construct a deep, wide-field optical-infrared catalog. At K s < 23 (AB magnitudes), our survey completeness is greater than 90% and 70% for stars and galaxies, respectively, and contains 143,466 galaxies and 13,254 stars. Using the BzK diagram, we divide our galaxy catalog into quiescent and star-forming galaxy candidates. At z ~ 2, our catalogs contain 3931 quiescent and 25,757 star-forming galaxies representing the largest and most secure sample at these depths and redshifts to date. Our counts of quiescent galaxies turns over at K s ~ 22, an effect that we demonstrate cannot be due to sample incompleteness. Both the number of faint and bright quiescent objects in our catalogs exceed the predictions of a recent semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, indicating potentially the need for further refinements in the amount of merging and active galactic nucleus feedback at z ~ 2 in these models. We measure the angular correlation function for each sample and find that the slope of the field galaxy correlation function flattens to 1.5 by K s ~ 23. At small angular scales, the angular correlation function for passive BzK galaxies is considerably in excess of the clustering of dark matter. We use precise 30-band photometric redshifts to derive the spatial correlation length and the redshift distributions for each object class. At K s < 22, we find r Delta *g/1.8 0 = 7.0 +/- 0.5h -1 Mpc for the passive BzK candidates and 4.7 +/- 0.8 h -1 Mpc for the star-forming BzK galaxies. Our pBzK galaxies have an average photometric redshift of zp ~ 1.4, in approximate agreement with the limited spectroscopic information currently available. The stacked K s image will be made publicly available from IRSA.
We analyze the optical-near infrared spectra of 33 quasars with redshifts 3.9 ≤ z ≤ 6.4 to investigate the properties of dust extinction at these cosmic epochs. The SMC extinction curve has been ...shown to reproduce the dust reddening of most quasars at z < 2.2; we investigate whether this curve also provides a good description of dust extinction at higher redshifts. We fit the observed spectra with synthetic absorbed quasar templates obtained by varying the intrinsic slope (αλ), the absolute extinction (A3000), and by using a grid of empirical and theoretical extinction curves. We find that seven quasars in our sample are affected by substantial extinction (A3000 ≥ 0.8), and characterized by very steep intrinsic slopes (αλ ≤ −2.3). All of the individual quasars require extinction curve deviating from that of the SMC, with a tendency to flatten at λ ≤ 2000 Å (in the rest frame of the source). However, due to the uncertainties in the individual extinction curves the SMC is still (marginally) consistent with the data in most cases. We obtain a mean extinction curve at z > 4, both by performing a simultaneous fit of all quasars and by averaging the extinction curves inferred for individual quasars. In the case of broad absorption line quasars (which are generally more absorbed by dust and possibly in a younger evolutionary stage), the mean extinction curve deviates from the SMC at a confidence level ≥95%. The difference between extinction curves in quasars at z > 4 and in quasars at lower redshift is indicative of either a different dust production mechanism at high redshift, or a different mechanism for processing dust into the ISM. We suggest that the same transitions may also apply to normal, star-forming galaxies at z > 4. In particular, the observed change in the average spectral slope of galaxies at z > 4 may be partially ascribed to a variation in the extinction curve, rather than a lower dust content at high redshift. In this scenario, the extinction curve inferred at z > 4 would imply a cosmic star-formation corrected for dust attenuation a factor of ~2 higher than estimated in the past.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the dust continuum and C ii 158 m line emission from the z = 6.0695 Lyman-Break Galaxy (LBG) WMH5. These observations at 0 3 ...spatial resolution show a compact (∼3 kpc) main galaxy in dust and C ii emission, with a "tail" of emission extending to the east by about 5 kpc (in projection). The C ii tail is comprised predominantly of two distinct sub-components in velocity, separated from the core by ∼100 and 250 km s−1, with narrow intrinsic widths of about 80 km s−1, which we call "sub-galaxies." The sub-galaxies themselves are extended east-west by about 3 kpc in individual channel images. The C ii tail joins smoothly into the main galaxy velocity field. The C ii line to continuum ratios are comparable for the main and sub-galaxy positions, within a factor two. In addition, these ratios are comparable to LBGs. We conjecture that the WMH5 system represents the early formation of a galaxy through the accretion of smaller satellite galaxies, embedded in a smoother gas distribution, along a possibly filamentary structure. The results are consistent with current cosmological simulations of early galaxy formation and support the idea of very early enrichment with dust and heavy elements of the accreting material.
We provide an overview of the design and capabilities of the near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the
James Webb
Space Telescope. NIRSpec is designed to be capable of carrying out ...low-resolution (
R
= 30−330) prism spectroscopy over the wavelength range 0.6–5.3 μm and higher resolution (
R
= 500−1340 or
R
= 1320−3600) grating spectroscopy over 0.7–5.2 μm, both in single-object mode employing any one of five fixed slits, or a 3.1 × 3.2 arcsec
2
integral field unit, or in multiobject mode employing a novel programmable micro-shutter device covering a 3.6 × 3.4 arcmin
2
field of view. The all-reflective optical chain of NIRSpec and the performance of its different components are described, and some of the trade-offs made in designing the instrument are touched upon. The faint-end spectrophotometric sensitivity expected of NIRSpec, as well as its dependency on the energetic particle environment that its two detector arrays are likely to be subjected to in orbit are also discussed.
We present first results of a study aimed to constrain the star formation rate and dust content of galaxies at z~2. We use a sample of BzK-selected star-forming galaxies, drawn from the COSMOS ...survey, to perform a stacking analysis of their 1.4 GHz radio continuum as a function of different stellar population properties, after removing AGN contaminants from the sample. Dust unbiased star formation rates are derived from radio fluxes assuming the local radio-IR correlation. The main results of this work are: i) specific star formation rates are constant over about 1 dex in stellar mass and up to the highest stellar mass probed; ii) the dust attenuation is a strong function of galaxy stellar mass with more massive galaxies being more obscured than lower mass objects; iii) a single value of the UV extinction applied to all galaxies would lead to grossly underestimate the SFR in massive galaxies; iv) correcting the observed UV luminosities for dust attenuation based on the Calzetti recipe provide results in very good agreement with the radio derived ones; v) the mean specific star formation rate of our sample steadily decreases by a factor of ~4 with decreasing redshift from z=2.3 to 1.4 and a factor of ~40 down the local Universe. These empirical SFRs would cause galaxies to dramatically overgrow in mass if maintained all the way to low redshifts, we suggest that this does not happen because star formation is progressively quenched, likely starting from the most massive galaxies.
ABSTRACT
We study the ionizing photon production efficiency at the end of the Epoch of Reionization (z ∼ 5.4 − 6.6) for a sample of 30 Ly α emitters. This is a crucial quantity to infer the ionizing ...photon budget of the universe. These objects were selected to have reliable spectroscopic redshifts, assigned based on the profile of their Ly α emission line, detected in the MUSE deep fields. We exploit medium-band observations from the JWST Extragalactic Medium-band Survey (JEMS) to find the flux excess corresponding to the redshifted Hα emission line. We estimate the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity by fitting the full JEMS photometry, along with several HST photometric points, with Prospector. We find a median UV continuum slope of $\beta = -2.09^{+0.23}_{-0.21}$, indicating young stellar populations with little-to-no dust attenuation. Supported by this, we derive ξion,0 with no dust attenuation and find a median value of log$\frac{\xi _{ion,0}}{\text{Hz erg}^{-1}} = 25.44^{+0.21}_{-0.15}$. If we perform dust attenuation corrections and assume a Calzetti attenuation law, our values are lowered by ∼0.1 dex. Our results suggest Ly α emitters at the Epoch of Reionization have slightly enhanced ξion,0 compared to previous estimations from literature, in particular, when compared to the non-Ly α emitting population. This initial study provides a promising outlook on the characterization of ionizing photon production in the early universe. In the future, a more extensive study will be performed on the entire data set provided by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Thus, for the first time, allowing us to place constraints on the wider galaxy populations driving reionization.
We present K-band imaging of all 49 radio galaxies in the 7C-I and 7C-II regions of the 7C Redshift Survey (7CRS). The low-frequency (151-MHz) selected 7CRS sample contains all sources with flux ...densities S151 > 0.5 Jy in three regions of the sky. We combine the K-band magnitudes of the 7CRS radio galaxies with those from the 3CRR, 6CE and 6C⋆ samples to investigate the nature of the relationship between K-magnitude and redshift and whether there is any dependence upon radio luminosity. We find that radio galaxies appear to belong to a homogeneous population that formed the bulk of their stars at high redshifts (zf > 5) and evolved passively from then until they reach a mean present-day luminosity of 3 L⋆. We find a significant difference between the K-magnitudes of the 7CRS and 3CRR radio galaxies with the 7CRS galaxies being ≈0.55 mag fainter at all redshifts. The cause of this weak correlation between stellar and radio luminosities probably lies in mutual correlations of these properties with the central black hole mass. We compare the evolution-corrected host luminosities at a constant radio luminosity and find that the typical host luminosity (mass) increases by approximately 1 L⋆ from z∼ 2 to ∼0.5 which, although a much smaller factor than predicted by semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, is in line with results on optically selected quasars. Our study has therefore revealed that the small dispersion in stellar luminosity of radio galaxies around 3 L⋆ includes subtle but significant differences between the host galaxies of extreme- and moderate-power radio sources at fixed redshift, and between those of high- and low-redshift radio sources at fixed radio luminosity.
We present a new analysis of stellar mass functions in the COSMOS field to fainter limits than has been previously probed at z <= 1. The increase in dynamic range reveals features in the shape of the ...stellar mass function that deviate from a single Schechter function. Neither the total nor the red (passive) or blue (star-forming) galaxy stellar mass functions can be well fitted with a single Schechter function once the mass completeness limit of the sample probes below ~3 X 109 M. We observe a dip or plateau at masses ~1010 M, just below the traditional M*, and an upturn toward a steep faint-end slope of Delta *a ~ -1.7 at lower mass at all redshifts <=1. This bimodal nature of the mass function is not solely a result of the blue/red dichotomy. Indeed, the blue mass function is by itself bimodal at z ~ 1. This suggests a new dichotomy in galaxy formation that predates the appearance of the red sequence. We propose two interpretations for this bimodal distribution. If the gas fraction increases toward lower mass, galaxies with M baryon ~ 1010 M would shift to lower stellar masses, creating the observed dip. This would indicate a change in star formation efficiency, perhaps linked to supernovae feedback becoming much more efficient below ~1010 M. Therefore, we investigate whether the dip is present in the baryonic (stars+gas) mass function. Alternatively, the dip could be created by an enhancement of the galaxy assembly rate at ~1011 M, a phenomenon that naturally arises if the baryon fraction peaks at M halo ~ 1012 M. In this scenario, galaxies occupying the bump around M * would be identified with central galaxies and the second fainter component of the mass function having a steep faint-end slope with satellite galaxies. The low-mass end of the blue and total mass functions exhibit a steeper slope than has been detected in previous work that may increasingly approach the halo mass function value of -2. While the dip feature is apparent in the total mass function at all redshifts, it appears to shift from the blue to the red population, likely as a result of transforming high-mass blue galaxies into red ones. At the same time, we detect a drastic upturn in the number of low-mass red galaxies. Their increase with time seems to reflect a decrease in the number of blue systems and so we tentatively associate them with satellite dwarf (spheroidal) galaxies that have undergone quenching due to environmental processes.
Context. Thanks to recent and ongoing large scale surveys, hundreds of brown dwarfs have been discovered in the last decade. The Canada-France Brown Dwarf Survey is a wide-field survey for cool brown ...dwarfs conducted with the MegaCam camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Aims. Our objectives are to find ultracool brown dwarfs and to constrain the field brown-dwarf luminosity function and the mass function from a large and homogeneous sample of L and T dwarfs. Methods. We identify candidates in CFHT/MegaCam i′ and z′ images and follow them up with pointed near infrared (NIR) imaging on several telescopes. Halfway through our survey we found ~ 50 T dwarfs and ~ 170 L or ultra cool M dwarfs drawn from a larger sample of 1400 candidates with typical ultracool dwarfs i′ − z′ colours, found in 780 square degrees. Results. We have currently completed the NIR follow-up on a large part of the survey for all candidates from mid-L dwarfs down to the latest T dwarfs known with utracool dwarfs’ colours. This allows us to draw on a complete and well defined sample of 102 ultracool dwarfs to investigate the luminosity function and space density of field dwarfs. Conclusions. We found the density of late L5 to T0 dwarfs to be $2.0^{+0.8}_{-0.7} \times 10^{-3}$2.0-0.7+0.8×10-3 objects pc-3, the density of T0.5 to T5.5 dwarfs to be $1.4^{+0.3}_{-0.2} \times 10^{-3}$1.4-0.2+0.3×10-3 objects pc-3, and the density of T6 to T8 dwarfs to be $5.3^{+3.1}_{-2.2} \times 10^{-3}$5.3-2.2+3.1×10-3 objects pc-3. We found that these results agree better with a flat substellar mass function. Three latest dwarfs at the boundary between T and Y dwarfs give the high density $8.3^{+9.0}_{-5.1} \times 10^{-3}$8.3-5.1+9.0×10-3 objects pc-3. Although the uncertainties are very large this suggests that many brown dwarfs should be found in this late spectral type range, as expected from the cooling of brown dwarfs, whatever their mass, down to very low temperature.
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