74 research outputs found
The ALHAMBRA Project: A large area multi medium-band optical and NIR photometric survey
(ABRIDGED) We describe the first results of the ALHAMBRA survey which
provides cosmic tomography of the evolution of the contents of the Universe
over most of Cosmic history. Our approach employs 20 contiguous, equal-width,
medium-band filters covering from 3500 to 9700 A, plus the JHKs bands, to
observe an area of 4 sqdeg on the sky. The optical photometric system has been
designed to maximize the number of objects with accurate classification by SED
and redshift, and to be sensitive to relatively faint emission lines. The
observations are being carried out with the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope using the
cameras LAICA and O-2000. The first data confirm that we are reaching the
expected magnitude limits of AB<~25 mag in the optical filters from the blue to
8300 A, and from AB=24.7 to 23.4 for the redder ones. The limit in the NIR is
(Vega) K_s~20, H~21, J~22. We expect to obtain accurate redshift values, Delta
z/(1+z) <~ 0.03 for about 5x10^5 galaxies with I<~25 (60% complete), and
z_med=0.74. This accuracy, together with the homogeneity of the selection
function, will allow for the study of the redshift evolution of the large scale
structure, the galaxy population and its evolution with redshift, the
identification of clusters of galaxies, and many other studies, without the
need for any further follow-up. It will also provide targets for detailed
studies with 10m-class telescopes. Given its area, spectral coverage and its
depth, apart from those main goals, the ALHAMBRA-Survey will also produce
valuable data for galactic studies.Comment: Accepted to the Astronomical Journal. 43 pages, 18 figures. The
images have been reduced in resolution to adapt to standard file sizes.
Readers can find the full-resolution version of the paper at the ALHAMBRA web
site (http://www.iaa.es/alhambra) under the "Publications" lin
The ALHAMBRA photometric system
This paper presents the characterization of the optical range of the ALHAMBRA
photometric system, a 20 contiguous, equal-width, medium-band CCD system with
wavelength coverage from 3500A to 9700A. The photometric description of the
system is done by presenting the full response curve as a product of the
filters, CCD and atmospheric transmission curves, and using some first and
second order moments of this response function. We also introduce the set of
standard stars that defines the system, formed by 31 classic spectrophotometric
standard stars which have been used in the calibration of other known
photometric systems, and 288 stars, flux calibrated homogeneously, from the
Next Generation Spectral Library (NGSL). Based on the NGSL, we determine the
transformation equations between Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) ugriz
photometry and the ALHAMBRA photometric system, in order to establish some
relations between both systems. Finally we develop and discuss a strategy to
calculate the photometric zero points of the different pointings in the
ALHAMBRA project.Comment: Astronomical Journal on the 14th of January 201
Optimal filter systems for photometric redshift estimation
In the next years, several cosmological surveys will rely on imaging data to
estimate the redshift of galaxies, using traditional filter systems with 4-5
optical broad bands; narrower filters improve the spectral resolution, but
strongly reduce the total system throughput. We explore how photometric
redshift performance depends on the number of filters n_f, characterizing the
survey depth through the fraction of galaxies with unambiguous redshift
estimates. For a combination of total exposure time and telescope imaging area
of 270 hrs m^2, 4-5 filter systems perform significantly worse, both in
completeness depth and precision, than systems with n_f >= 8 filters. Our
results suggest that for low n_f, the color-redshift degeneracies overwhelm the
improvements in photometric depth, and that even at higher n_f, the effective
photometric redshift depth decreases much more slowly with filter width than
naively expected from the reduction in S/N. Adding near-IR observations
improves the performance of low n_f systems, but still the system which
maximizes the photometric redshift completeness is formed by 9 filters with
logarithmically increasing bandwidth (constant resolution) and half-band
overlap, reaching ~0.7 mag deeper, with 10% better redshift precision, than 4-5
filter systems. A system with 20 constant-width, non-overlapping filters
reaches only ~0.1 mag shallower than 4-5 filter systems, but has a precision
almost 3 times better, dz = 0.014(1+z) vs. dz = 0.042(1+z). We briefly discuss
a practical implementation of such a photometric system: the ALHAMBRA survey.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letter
The evolution of Balmer jump selected galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey
We present a new color-selection technique, based on the Bruzual & Charlot
models convolved with the bands of the ALHAMBRA survey, and the redshifted
position of the Balmer jump to select star-forming galaxies in the redshift
range 0.5 < z < 1.5. These galaxies are dubbed Balmer jump Galaxies BJGs. We
apply the iSEDfit Bayesian approach to fit each detailed SED and determine
star-formation rate (SFR), stellar mass, age and absolute magnitudes. The mass
of the haloes where these samples reside are found via a clustering analysis.
Five volume-limited BJG sub-samples with different mean redshifts are found to
reside in haloes of median masses slightly
increasing toward z=0.5. This increment is similar to numerical simulations
results which suggests that we are tracing the evolution of an evolving
population of haloes as they grow to reach a mass of at z=0.5. The likely progenitors of our samples at z3 are Lyman
Break Galaxies, which at z2 would evolve into star-forming BzK galaxies,
and their descendants in the local Universe are elliptical galaxies.Hence, this
allows us to follow the putative evolution of the SFR, stellar mass and age of
these galaxies. From z1.0 to z0.5, the stellar mass of the volume
limited BJG samples nearly does not change with redshift, suggesting that major
mergers play a minor role on the evolution of these galaxies. The SFR evolution
accounts for the small variations of stellar mass, suggesting that star
formation and possible minor mergers are the main channels of mass assembly.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to A&A. It includes first referee's
comments. Abstract abridged due to arXiv requirement
IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General. Cádiz, del 3 al 6 de abril de 2000. Vol. IV
Durante los dÃas 3 al 6 de abril del año 2000 tuvo lugar en la Universidad de Cádiz el IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General, organizado por el área de LingüÃstica General de esta Universidad.851 págs
IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General. Cádiz, del 3 al 6 de abril de 2000. Vol. III
Durante los dÃas 3 al 6 de abril del año 2000 tuvo lugar en la Universidad de Cádiz el IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General, organizado por el área de LingüÃstica General de esta Universidad.811 págs
IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General. Cádiz, del 3 al 6 de abril de 2000. Vol. II
Durante los dÃas 3 al 6 de abril del año 2000 tuvo lugar en la Universidad de Cádiz el IV Congreso de LingüÃstica General, organizado por el área de LingüÃstica General de esta Universidad.893 págs
Quasi-stellar objects in the ALHAMBRA survey. I. Photometric redshift accuracy based on a 23 optical-NIR filter photometry
We characterize the ability of the ALHAMBRA survey to assign accurate
photo-z's to BLAGN and QSOs based on their ALHAMBRA very-low-resolution
optical-NIR spectroscopy. A sample of 170 spectroscopically identified BLAGN
and QSOs have been used together with a library of templates (including SEDs
from AGN, normal, starburst galaxies and stars) in order to fit the 23
photometric data points provided by ALHAMBRA in the optical and NIR (20
medium-band optical filters plus the standard JHKs). We find that the ALHAMBRA
photometry is able to provide an accurate photo-z and spectral classification
for ~88% of the spectroscopic sources over 2.5 deg^2 in different areas of the
survey, all of them brighter than m678=23.5 (equivalent to r(SLOAN)~24.0). The
derived photo-z accuracy is better than 1% and comparable to the most recent
results in other cosmological fields. The fraction of outliers (~12%) is mainly
caused by the larger photometric errors for the faintest sources and the
intrinsic variability of the BLAGN/QSO population. A small fraction of outliers
may have an incorrectly assigned spectroscopic redshift. The definition of the
ALHAMBRA survey in terms of the number of filters, filter properties, area
coverage and depth is able to provide photometric redshifts for BLAGN/QSOs with
a precision similar to any previous survey that makes use of medium-band
optical photometry. In agreement with previous literature results, our analysis
also reveals that, in the 0<z<4 redshift interval, very accurate photo-z can be
obtained without the use of near-IR broadband photometry at the expense of a
slight increase of outliers. The NIR importance is expected to increase at
higher redshifts (z>4). These results are relevant for the design of future
optical follow-ups of surveys with a large fraction of BLAGN, as it is the case
for X-rays or radio surveys.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in A&
Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to . I. MUFFIT: A Multi-Filter Fitting code for stellar population diagnostics
We present MUFFIT, a new generic code optimized to retrieve the main stellar
population parameters of galaxies in photometric multi-filter surveys, and we
check its reliability and feasibility with real galaxy data from the ALHAMBRA
survey. Making use of an error-weighted -test, we compare the
multi-filter fluxes of galaxies with the synthetic photometry of mixtures of
two single stellar populations at different redshifts and extinctions, to
provide through a Monte Carlo method the most likely range of stellar
population parameters (mainly ages and metallicities), extinctions, redshifts,
and stellar masses. To improve the diagnostic reliability, MUFFIT identifies
and removes from the analysis those bands that are significantly affected by
emission lines. We highlight that the retrieved age-metallicity locus for a
sample of early-type galaxies in ALHAMBRA at different stellar
mass bins are in very good agreement with the ones from SDSS spectroscopic
diagnostics. Moreover, a one-to-one comparison between the redshifts, ages,
metallicities, and stellar masses derived spectroscopically for SDSS and by
MUFFIT for ALHAMBRA reveals good qualitative agreements in all the parameters.
In addition, and using as input the results from photometric-redshift codes,
MUFFIT improves the photometric-redshift accuracy by -, and it
also detects nebular emissions in galaxies, providing physical information
about their strengths. Our results show the potential of multi-filter galaxy
data to conduct reliable stellar population studies with the appropiate
analysis techniques, as MUFFIT.Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The ALHAMBRA survey: evolution of galaxy spectral segregation
We study the clustering of galaxies as a function of spectral type and
redshift in the range using data from the Advanced Large
Homogeneous Area Medium Band Redshift Astronomical (ALHAMBRA) survey. The data
cover 2.381 deg in 7 fields, after applying a detailed angular selection
mask, with accurate photometric redshifts [] down to
. From this catalog we draw five fixed number density,
redshift-limited bins. We estimate the clustering evolution for two different
spectral populations selected using the ALHAMBRA-based photometric templates:
quiescent and star-forming galaxies. For each sample, we measure the real-space
clustering using the projected correlation function. Our calculations are
performed over the range Mpc, allowing us to find a
steeper trend for Mpc, which is especially clear for
star-forming galaxies. Our analysis also shows a clear early differentiation in
the clustering properties of both populations: star-forming galaxies show
weaker clustering with evolution in the correlation length over the analysed
redshift range, while quiescent galaxies show stronger clustering already at
high redshifts, and no appreciable evolution. We also perform the bias
calculation where similar segregation is found, but now it is among the
quiescent galaxies where a growing evolution with redshift is clearer. These
findings clearly corroborate the well known colour-density relation, confirming
that quiescent galaxies are mainly located in dark matter halos that are more
massive than those typically populated by star-forming galaxies.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Ap
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