A STIS Survey for OVI Absorption Systems at 0.12 < z < 0.5 I.: The Statistical Properties of Ionized Gas

We have conducted a systematic survey for intervening OVI absorbers in available echelle spectra of 16 QSOs at z_QSO = 0.17-0.57. These spectra were obtained using HST/STIS with the E140M grating. Our search uncovered a total of 27 foreground OVI absorbers with rest-frame absorption equivalent width W_r(1031) > 25mA. Ten of these QSOs exhibit strong OVI absorbers in their vicinity. Our OVI survey does not require the known presence of Lya, and the echelle resolution allows us to identify the OVI absorption doublet based on their common line centroid and known flux ratio. We estimate the total redshift survey path, \Delta z, using a series of Monte-Carlo simulations, and find that \Delta z=1.66, 2.18, and 2.42 for absorbers of strength W_r = 30, 50 and 80mA, respectively, leading to a number density of dN(W > 50mA)/dz = 6.7 +/- 1.7 and dN(W > 30mA)/dz = 10.4 +/- 2.2. In contrast, we also measure dN/dz = 27 +/- 9 for OVI absorbers of W_r > 50mA at |\Delta v|< 5000 kms from the background QSOs. Using the random sample of OVI absorbers with well characterized survey completeness, we estimate a mean cosmological mass density of the OVI gas \Omega(OVI)h = 1.7 +/- 0.3 x 10^-7. In addition, we show that <5% of OVI absorbers originate in underdense regions that do not show a significant trace of HI. Furthermore, we show that the neutral gas column N(HI) associated with these OVI absorbers spans nearly five orders of magnitude, and show moderate correlation with N(OVI). Finally, while the number density of OVI absorbers varies substantially from one sightline to another, it also appears to be inversely correlated with the number density of HI absorbers along individual lines of sight.Comment: 12 pages. ApJ accepte

Photometry and Photometric Redshifts of Faint Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field South NICMOS Field

We present a catalog of photometry and photometric redshifts of 335 faint objects in the HDF-S NICMOS field. The analysis is based on (1) infrared images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS) with the F110W, F160W, and F222M filters, (2) an optical image obtained with HST using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) with no filter, and (3) optical images obtained with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) with U, B, V, R, and I filters. The primary utility of the catalog of photometric redshifts is as a survey of faint galaxies detected in the NICMOS F160W and F222M images. The sensitivity of the survey varies significantly with position, reaching a limiting depth of AB(16,000) ~ 28.7 and covering 1.01 arcmin^2 to AB(16,000) = 27 and 1.05 arcmin^2 to AB(16,000) = 26.5. The catalog of photometric redshifts identifies 21 galaxies (or 6% of the total) of redshift z > 5, 8 galaxies (or 2% of the total) of redshift z > 10, and 11 galaxies (or 3% of the total) of best-fit spectral type E/S0, of which 5 galaxies (or 1% of the total) are of redshift z > 1.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, August 1, 2000 issu

The Carnegie Supernova Project I: methods to estimate host-galaxy reddening of stripped-envelope supernovae

We aim to improve upon contemporary methods to estimate host-galaxy reddening of stripped-envelope (SE) supernovae (SNe). To this end the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP-I) SE SNe photometry data release, consisting of nearly three dozen objects, is used to identify a minimally reddened sub-sample for each traditionally defined spectroscopic sub-types (i.e, SNe~IIb, SNe~Ib, SNe~Ic). Inspection of the optical and near-infrared (NIR) colors and color evolution of the minimally reddened sub-samples reveals a high degree of homogeneity, particularly between 0d to +20d relative to B-band maximum. This motivated the construction of intrinsic color-curve templates, which when compared to the colors of reddened SE SNe, yields an entire suite of optical and NIR color excess measurements. Comparison of optical/optical vs. optical/NIR color excess measurements indicates the majority of the CSP-I SE SNe suffer relatively low amounts of reddening and we find evidence for different R_(V)^(host) values among different SE SN. Fitting the color excess measurements of the seven most reddened objects with the Fitzpatrick (1999) reddening law model provides robust estimates of the host visual-extinction A_(V)^(host) and R_(V)^(host). In the case of the SE SNe with relatively low amounts of reddening, a preferred value of R_(V)^(host) is adopted for each sub-type, resulting in estimates of A_(V)^(host) through Fitzpatrick (1999) reddening law model fits to the observed color excess measurements. Our analysis suggests SE SNe reside in galaxies characterized by a range of dust properties. We also find evidence SNe Ic are more likely to occur in regions characterized by larger R_(V)^(host) values compared to SNe IIb/Ib and they also tend to suffer more extinction. These findings are consistent with work in the literature suggesting SNe Ic tend to occur in regions of on-going star formation.Comment: Abstract abridged to fit allowed limit. Resubmitted to A&A, 34 pages, 19 figures, 6 tables. Constructive comments welcome