167 research outputs found
Near-Infrared Survey of the GOODS-North Field: Search for Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z=>6.5
We present near-infrared (NIR; J & Ks) survey of the Great Observatories
Origins Deep Survey-North (GOODS-N) field. The publicly available imaging data
were obtained using the MOIRCS instrument on the 8.2m Subaru and the WIRCam
instrument on the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). These
observations fulfill a serious wavelength gap in the GOODS-N data - i.e., lack
of deep NIR observations. We combine the Subaru/MOIRCS and CFHT/WIRCam archival
data to generate deep J and Ks band images, covering the full GOODS-N field
(~169 sq. arcmin) to an AB magnitude limit of ~25 mag (3sigma). We applied
z'-band dropout color selection criteria, using the NIR data generated here. We
have identified two possible Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) candidates at z\gtrsim6.5
with J\lesssim24.5. The first candidate is a likely LBG at z\sim6.5 based on a
weak spectral feature tentatively identified as Lyalpha line in the deep
Keck/DEIMOS spectrum, while the second candidate is a possible LBG at z\sim7
based on its photometric redshift. These z'-dropout objects, if confirmed, are
among the brightest such candidates found so far. At z\gtrsim6.5, their star
formation rate is estimated as 100-200 solar mass per year. If they continue to
form stars at this rate, they assemble a stellar mass of ~5x10^10 solar mass
after about 400 million years, becoming the progenitors of massive galaxies
observed at z\sim5. We study the implication of the z'-band dropout candidates
discovered here, in constraining the bright-end of the luminosity function and
understanding the nature of high redshift galaxies.Comment: ApJ in press, minor text/reference update
Discovery of Three Distant, Cold Brown Dwarfs in the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels Survey
We present the discovery of three late type (>T4) brown dwarfs, including a
probable Y dwarf, in the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) Survey.
We use the G141 grism spectra to determine the spectral types of the dwarfs and
derive distance estimates based on a comparison with nearby T dwarfs with known
parallaxes. These are the most distant spectroscopically confirmed T/Y dwarfs,
with the farthest at an estimated distance of ~400 pc. We compare the number of
cold dwarfs found in the WISP survey with simulations of the brown dwarf mass
function. The number found is generally consistent with an initial stellar mass
function dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha} with \alpha = 0.0--0.5, although the
identification of a Y dwarf is somewhat surprising and may be indicative of
either a flatter absolute magnitude/spectral type relation than previously
reported or an upturn in the number of very late type brown dwarfs in the
observed volume.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJ Letters. 10 pages, 2 figure
Improved Photometric Redshifts with Surface Luminosity Priors
We apply Bayesian statistics with prior probabilities of galaxy surface
luminosity (SL) to improve photometric redshifts. We apply the method to a
sample of 1266 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS North and
South fields at 0.1 < z < 2.0. We start with spectrophotometric redshifts
(SPZs) based on Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically grism
spectra, which cover a wavelength range of 6000-9000A, combined with
(U)BViz(JHK) broadband photometry in the GOODS fields. The accuracy of SPZ
redshifts is estimated to be \sigma (\Delta(z))=0.035 with an systematic offset
of -0.026, where \Delta(z)=\Delta z / (1+z), for galaxies in redshift range of
0.5 < z < 1.25. The addition of the SL prior probability helps break the
degeneracy of SPZ redshifts between low redshift 4000 A break galaxies and
high-redshift Lyman break galaxies which are mostly catastrophic outliers. For
the 1138 galaxies at z < 1.6, the fraction of galaxies with redshift deviation
\Delta (z) > 0.2 is reduced from 15.0% to 10.4%, while the rms scatter of the
fractional redshift error does not change much.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, published in A
Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift
Dust attenuation affects nearly all observational aspects of galaxy
evolution, yet very little is known about the form of the dust-attenuation law
in the distant Universe. Here, we model the spectral energy distributions
(SEDs) of galaxies at z = 1.5--3 from CANDELS with rest-frame UV to near-IR
imaging under different assumptions about the dust law, and compare the amount
of inferred attenuated light with the observed infrared (IR) luminosities. Some
individual galaxies show strong Bayesian evidence in preference of one dust law
over another, and this preference agrees with their observed location on the
plane of infrared excess (IRX, ) and UV slope
(). We generalize the shape of the dust law with an empirical model,
where
is the dust law of Calzetti et al. (2000), and show that there
exists a correlation between the color excess and tilt with
+ . Galaxies with high
color excess have a shallower, starburst-like law, and those with low color
excess have a steeper, SMC-like law. Surprisingly, the galaxies in our sample
show no correlation between the shape of the dust law and stellar mass,
star-formation rate, or . The change in the dust law with color excess
is consistent with a model where attenuation is caused by by scattering, a
mixed star-dust geometry, and/or trends with stellar population age,
metallicity, and dust grain size. This rest-frame UV-to-near-IR method shows
potential to constrain the dust law at even higher () redshifts.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, resubmitted to Ap
The Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function at z= 4-8: A Steepening Low-mass-end Slope with Increasing Redshift
We present galaxy stellar mass functions (GSMFs) at 4-8 from a
rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) selected sample of 4500 galaxies, found via
photometric redshifts over an area of 280 arcmin in the CANDELS/GOODS
fields and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The deepest Spitzer/IRAC data
yet-to-date and the relatively large volume allow us to place a better
constraint at both the low- and high-mass ends of the GSMFs compared to
previous space-based studies from pre-CANDELS observations. Supplemented by a
stacking analysis, we find a linear correlation between the rest-frame UV
absolute magnitude at 1500 \AA\ () and logarithmic stellar mass
() that holds for galaxies with . We
use simulations to validate our method of measuring the slope of the - relation, finding that the bias is minimized with a hybrid
technique combining photometry of individual bright galaxies with stacked
photometry for faint galaxies. The resultant measured slopes do not
significantly evolve over 4-8, while the normalization of the trend
exhibits a weak evolution toward lower masses at higher redshift. We combine
the - distribution with observed rest-frame UV luminosity
functions at each redshift to derive the GSMFs, finding that the low-mass-end
slope becomes steeper with increasing redshift from
at to at
. The inferred stellar mass density, when integrated over
-, increases by a factor of
between and and is in good agreement with the time integral of the
cosmic star formation rate density.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures, ApJ, in pres
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