The Hubble Deep Field in the Far Ultraviolet

Results from a recent HST survey of field galaxies at wavelengths 1600 Angstroms and 2400 Angstroms are be presented. The data are used to constrain the fraction of Lyman-continuum radiation that escapes from galaxies at redshifts z ~ 1. The combined UV-IR photometry for HDF galaxies is also used to investigate whether low-mass starburst galaxies dominate the field-galaxy population at redshift z ~1. The relative lack of objects with the colors of faded bursts suggests that star-formation is largly quiescent rather than bursty or episodic.Comment: Presented at the ESO/ECF/STScI Workshop on Deep Fields, October 2000. 7 pages, 3 figure

Optimal Galaxy Shape Measurements for Weak Lensing Applications Using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys

We present three-epoch multiband ($V_{606}$, $i_{775}$, $z_{850}$) measurements of galaxy shapes using the ``polar shapelet'' or Laguerre-expansions method with the Hubble Space Telescope ($HST$) Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) data, obtained as part of the {\it Great Observatories Origin Deep Survey} (GOODS). We take advantage of the unique features of the GOODS/ACS Fields to test the reliability of this relatively new method of galaxy shape measurement for weak lensing analysis and to quantify the impact of the ACS Point Spread Function (PSF) on $HST$/ACS data. We estimate the bias introduced by the sharp PSF of the ACS on shape measurement. We show that the bias in the tangential shear due to galaxy-galaxy lensing can be safely neglected provided only well-resolved galaxies are used, while it would be comparable to the signal level (1--3%) for cosmic shear measurements. These results should of be general utility in planning and analyzing weak lensing measurements with $HST$/ACS data.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for ApJ

The Hubble Deep Fields

The Hubble space telescope observations of the northern Hubble deep field, and more recently its counterpart in the south, provide detections and photometry for stars and field galaxies to the faintest levels currently achievable, reaching magnitudes V ~ 30. Since 1995, the northern Hubble deep field has been the focus of deep surveys at nearly all wavelengths. These observations have revealed many properties of high redshift galaxies, and have contributed important data on the stellar mass function in the Galactic halo.Comment: 52 pages; includes LaTeX text file, 6 ps figures, 1 style file. To appear in Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, volume. 38. Color version of figure 3 available from "http://icarus.stsci.edu/~ferguson/research/hdf_annrev/

Lyman Break Galaxies in the NGST Era

With SIRTF and NGST in the offing, it is interesting to examine what the stellar populations of z~3 galaxies models imply for the existence and nature of Lyman-break galaxies at higher redshift. To this end, we ``turn back the clock'' on the stellar population models that have been fit to optical and infrared data of Lyman-break galaxies at z~3. The generally young ages (typically 10^8 +- 0.5 yr) of these galaxies imply that their stars were not present much beyond z=4. For smooth star-formation histories SFR(t) and Salpeter IMFs, the ionizing radiation from early star-formation in these galaxies would be insufficient to reionize the intergalactic medium at z~6, and the luminosity density at z~4 would be significantly lower than observed. We examine possible ways to increase the global star-formation rate at higher redshift without violating the stellar-population constraints at z~3.Comment: To appear in "The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift", ed. R. Bender and A. Renzini, ESO Astrophysics Symposia, Springer-Verlag 7 Pages, 2 figure

Gravitational Lensing by Burkert Halos

We investigate the gravitational lensing properties of dark matter halos with Burkert profiles. We derive an analytic expression for the lens equation and use it to compute the magnification, impact parameter and image separations for strong lensing. For the scaling relation that provides the best fits to spiral-galaxy rotation curve data, Burkert halos will not produce strong lensing, even if this scaling relation extends up to masses of galaxy clusters. Tests of a simple model of an exponential stellar disk superimposed on a Burkert-profile halo demonstrate that strong lensing is unlikely without an additional concentration of mass in the galaxy center (e.g. a bulge). The fact that most strong lenses on galactic scales are elliptical galaxies suggests that a strong central concentration of baryons is required to produce image splitting. This solution is less attractive for clusters of galaxies, which are generally considered to be dark-matter dominated even at small radii. There are three possible implications of these results: (1) dark halos may have a variety of inner profiles (2) dark matter halos may not follow a single scaling relation from galaxy scale up to cluster scale and/or (3) the splitting of images (even by clusters of galaxies) may in general be due to the central concentration of baryonic material in halos rather than dark matter.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for ApJ

What shapes the far-infrared spectral energy distributions of galaxies?

To explore the connection between the global physical properties of galaxies and their far-infrared (FIR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs), we study the variation in the FIR SEDs of a set of hydrodynamically simulated galaxies that are generated by performing dust radiative transfer in post-processing. Our sample includes both isolated and merging systems at various stages of the merging process and covers infrared (IR) luminosities and dust masses that are representative of both low- and high-redshift galaxies. We study the FIR SEDs using principle component analysis (PCA) and find that 97\% of the variance in the sample can be explained by two principle components (PCs). The first PC characterizes the wavelength of the peak of the FIR SED, and the second encodes the breadth of the SED. We find that the coefficients of both PCs can be predicted well using a double power law in terms of the IR luminosity and dust mass, which suggests that these two physical properties are the primary determinants of galaxies' FIR SED shapes. Incorporating galaxy sizes does not significantly improve our ability to predict the FIR SEDs. Our results suggest that the observed redshift evolution in the effective dust temperature at fixed IR luminosity is not driven by geometry: the SEDs of $z \sim 2-3$ ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) are cooler than those of local ULIRGs not because the high-redshift galaxies are more extended but rather because they have higher dust masses at fixed IR luminosity. Finally, based on our simulations, we introduce a two-parameter set of SED templates that depend on both IR luminosity and dust mass.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, comments welcom

The IRX-β\beta relation: Insights from simulations

We study the relationship between the UV continuum slope and infrared excess (IRX$\equiv L_{\rm IR}/L_{\rm FUV}$) predicted by performing dust radiative transfer on a suite of hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies. Our suite includes both isolated disk galaxies and mergers intended to be representative of galaxies at both $z \sim 0$ and $z \sim 2-3$. Our low-redshift isolated disks and mergers often populate a region around the the locally calibrated \citet[][M99]{M99} relation but move well above the relation during merger-induced starbursts. Our high-redshift simulated galaxies are blue and IR-luminous, which makes them lie above the M99 relation. The value of UV continuum slope strongly depends on the dust type used in the radiative transfer calculations: Milky Way-type dust leads to significantly more negative (bluer) slopes compared with Small Magellanic Cloud-type dust. The effect on $\beta$ due to variations in the dust composition with galaxy properties or redshift can dominate over other sources of $\beta$ variations and is the dominant model uncertainty. The dispersion in $\beta$ is anticorrelated with specific star formation rate and tends to be higher for the $z \sim 2-3$ simulations. In the actively star-forming $z \sim 2-3$ simulated galaxies, dust attenuation dominates the dispersion in $\beta$, whereas in the $z \sim 0$ simulations, the contributions of SFH variations and dust are similar. For low-SSFR systems at both redshifts, SFH variations dominate the dispersion. Finally, the simulated $z \sim 2-3$ isolated disks and mergers both occupy a region in the \irxbeta\ plane consistent with observed $z \sim 2-3$ dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Thus, contrary to some claims in the literature, the blue colors of high-z DSFGs do not imply that they are short-lived starbursts.Comment: 20 pages+a 4-page appendix, Accepted for publication at Ap