K. L. Wu

The DEEP Groth Strip Galaxy Redshift Survey. III. Redshift Catalog and Properties of Galaxies

The Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP) is a series of spectroscopic surveys of faint galaxies, targeted at understanding the properties and clustering of galaxies at redshifts z ~ 1. We present the redshift catalog of the DEEP1 Groth Strip pilot phase of this project, a Keck LRIS survey of faint galaxies in the Groth Survey Strip imaged with HST WFPC2. The redshift catalog and data, including reduced spectra, are made publicly available through a Web-accessible database. The catalog contains 658 secure galaxy redshifts with a median z = 0.65. The distribution of these galaxies shows large-scale structure walls to z ~ 1. We find a bimodal distribution in the galaxy color-magnitude diagram that persists to the same distance. A similar color division has been seen locally by the SDSS and to z ~ 1 by the COMBO-17 survey. The HST imaging allows us to measure structural properties of the galaxies, and we find that the color division corresponds generally to a structural division. Most red galaxies, ~75%, are centrally concentrated, with a red bulge or spheroidal stellar component, while blue galaxies usually have exponential profiles. However, there are two subclasses of red galaxies that are not bulge dominated: edge-on disks and a second category that we term diffuse red galaxies (DIFRGs). Comparison to a local sample drawn from the RC3 suggests that distant edge-on disks are similar in appearance and frequency to those at low redshift, but analogs of DIFRGs are rare among local red galaxies. DIFRGs have significant emission lines, indicating that they are reddened mainly by dust rather than age. The DIFRGs in our sample are all at z > 0.64, suggesting that DIFRGs are more prevalent at high redshifts; they may be related to the dusty or irregular extremely red objects beyond z > 1.2 that have been found in deep K-selected surveys. We measure the color evolution of both red and blue galaxies by comparing our U - B colors to those from the RC3. For red galaxies, we find a reddening of only 0.11 mag from z ~ 0.8 to now, about half the color evolution measured by COMBO-17. Larger, more carefully defined samples with better colors are needed to improve this measurement. Reconciling evolution in color, luminosity, mass, morphology, and star formation rates will be an active topic of future research.

The Magnitude-Size Relation of Galaxies out to z ∼ 1* **

As part of the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP) survey, a sample of 190 field galaxies (I814 ≤ 23.5) in the Groth Survey Strip has been used to analyze the magnitude-size relation over the range 0.1 0.7), a handful of luminous, high surface brightness galaxies appears that occupies a region of the magnitude-size plane rarely populated by local galaxies. Their wide range of colors and bulge fractions points to a variety of possible origins.

Chandra detection of a Type II quasar at z = 3.288

We report on observations of a type II quasar at redshift z ¼ 3:288, identified as a hard X-ray source in a 185 ks observation with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and as a high-redshift photometric candidate from deep, multiband optical imaging. CXO J084837.9+445352 (hereafter CXO 52) shows an unusually hard Xray spectrum from which we infer an absorbing column density NH ¼ð 4:8 � 2:1 Þ� 10 23 cm � 2 (90% confidence) and an implied unabsorbed 2 10 keV rest-frame luminosity of L2 10 ¼ 3:3 � 10 44 ergs s � 1 , well within the quasar regime. Hubble Space Telescope imaging shows CXO 52 to be elongated with slight morphological differences between the WFPC2 F814W and NICMOS F160W bands. Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of CXO 52 shows high-ionization emission lines with velocity widths � 1000 km s � 1 and flux ratios similar to a Seyfert 2 galaxy or radio galaxy. The latter are the only class of high-redshift type II luminous active galactic nuclei that have been extensively studied to date. Unlike radio galaxies, however, CXO 52 is radio quiet, remaining undetected at radio wavelengths to fairly deep limits, f4:8 GHz < 40 lJy. High-redshift type II quasars, expected from unification models of active galaxies and long thought necessary to explain the X-ray background, are poorly constrained observationally, with few such systems known. We discuss recent observations of similar type II quasars and detail search techniques for such systems, namely, (1) X-ray selection, (2) radio selection, (3) multicolor imaging selection, and (4) narrowband imaging selection. Such studies are likely to begin identifying luminous, high-redshift type II systems in large numbers. We discuss the prospects for these studies and their implications for our understanding of the X-ray background. Subject headings: cosmology: observations — galaxies: active — quasars: individual (CXO J084837.9+445352) — X-rays: galaxies

The DEEP Groth Strip Survey. VIII. The Evolution of Luminous Field Bulges at Redshift z ∼ 1*

We present a candidate sample of luminous bulges (including ellipticals) found within the Groth Strip Survey (GSS), with spectroscopic redshifts of 0.73 1.5. Only small amounts of residual star formation are needed to explain both the absence of bluening of bulges to today and the presence of emission lines seen in the Keck spectra of the very red distant galaxies.

The DEEP Groth Strip Survey. I. The Sample

The Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Probe (DEEP) is a multiphase research program dedicated to the study of the formation and evolution of galaxies and of large-scale structure in the distant universe. This paper describes the first five-year phase, denoted DEEP1. A series of 10 DEEP1 papers will discuss a range of scientific topics (e.g., the study of photometric and spectral properties of a general distant galaxy survey, the evolution observed in galaxy populations of varied morphologies). The observational basis for these studies is the Groth Survey Strip field, a 127 arcmin2 region that has been observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in both broad I-band and V-band optical filters and with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck Telescopes. Catalogs of photometric and structural parameters have been constructed for 11,547 galaxies and stars at magnitudes brighter than 29, and spectroscopy has been conducted for a magnitude-color weighted subsample of 818 objects. We evaluate three independent techniques for constructing an imaging catalog for the field from the HST data and discuss the depth and sampling of the resultant catalogs. The selection of the spectroscopic subsample is discussed, and we describe the multifaceted approach taken to prioritizing objects of interest for a variety of scientific subprograms. A series of Monte Carlo simulations then demonstrates that the spectroscopic subsample can be adequately modeled as a simple function of magnitude and color cuts in the imaging catalog.