Kentaro Motohara

The End of the Reionization Epoch Probed by Lyα Emitters at z = 6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field* **

We report an extensive search for Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field. Subsequent spectroscopy with Subaru and Keck identified eight more LAEs, giving a total of 17 spectroscopically confirmed LAEs at z = 6.5. Based on this spectroscopic sample of 17, complemented by a photometric sample of 58 LAEs, we have derived a more accurate Lyα luminosity function of LAEs at z = 6.5, which reveals an apparent deficit at the bright end of ∼0.75 mag fainter L*, compared with that observed at z = 5.7. The difference in the LAE luminosity functions between z = 5.7 and 6.5 is significant at the 3 σ level, which is reduced to 2 σ when cosmic variance is taken into account. This result may imply that the reionization of the universe has not been completed at z = 6.5. We found that the spatial distribution of LAEs at z = 6.5 was homogeneous over the field. We discuss the implications of these results for the reionization of the universe.

THE TYPE IC HYPERNOVA SN 2002AP

Photometric and spectroscopic data of the energetic Type Ic supernova (SN) 2002ap are presented, and the properties of the SN are investigated through models of its spectral evolution and its light curve. The SN is spectroscopically similar to the hypernova SN 1997ef. However, its kinetic energy [~(4-10) ? 1051 ergs] and the mass ejected (2.5-5 M?) are smaller, resulting in a faster evolving light curve. The SN synthesized ~0.07 M? of 56Ni, and its peak luminosity was similar to that of normal SNe. Brightness alone should not be used to define a hypernova, whose defining character, namely very broad spectral features, is the result of high kinetic energy. The likely main-sequence mass of the progenitor star was 20-25 M?, which is also lower than that of both hypernovae SN 1997ef and SN 1998bw. SN 2002ap appears to lie at the low-energy and low-mass end of the hypernova sequence as it is known so far. Observations of the nebular spectrum, which is expected to dominate by the summer of 2002, are necessary to confirm these values.

The luminosity function and star formation rate between redshifts of 0.07 and 1.47 for narrowband emitters in the subaru deep field

SDF line-emitting galaxies in four narrowband filters at low and intermediate redshifts are presented. Broadband colors, follow-up optical spectroscopy, and multiple NB filters are used to distinguish Hα, [O II], and [O III] emitters at z = 0.07-1.47 to construct their LFs. These LFs are derived down to faint magnitudes, allowing for an accurate determination of the faint-end slope. With a large (N ∼ 200-900) sample for each redshift interval, a Schechter profile is fitted to each LF. Prior to dust extinction corrections, the [O III] and [O II] LFs agree reasonably well with those of Hippelein et al. The z = 0.08 Ha LF, which reaches 2 orders of magnitude fainter than Gallego et al., is steeper by 25%. This indicates that there are more low-luminosity star-forming galaxies for z 1, the SFR densities are similar. The latter is consistent with previous UVand [O II] measurements. Below z < 0.4, the SFR densities are consistent with several Ha, [O II], and UV measurements, but others are a factor of 2 higher. For example, the z = 0.066-0.092 LF agrees with Jones & Bland-Hawthorn, but at z = 0.24 and 0.40, their number densities are twice as high. This discrepancy can be explained by cosmic variance.

Lyα Emitters at z = 5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field

PASJ: Publ. Astron. Soc. Japan , 1–??, c 2008. Astronomical Society of Japan. Lyα Emitters at z = 5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field Kazuhiro Shimasaku, 1,2 Nobunari Kashikawa, 3,4 Mamoru Doi, 5,2 Chun Ly, 6 Matthew A.Malkan, 6 Yuichi Matsuda, 7 Masami Ouchi, 8,‡ Tomoki Hayashino, 9 Masanori Iye, 3,4 Kentaro Motohara, 5 Takashi Murayama, Tohru Nagao, 3,11 Kouji Ohta, 12 Sadanori Okamura, 1,2 Toshiyuki Sasaki, 13 Yasuhiro Shioya, 10 Yoshiaki Taniguchi 10 arXiv:astro-ph/0602614v1 28 Feb 2006 Department of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 Email (KS): shimasaku@astron.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp Research Center for the Early Universe, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033 Optical and Infrared Astronomy Division, National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 Department of Astronomy, School of Science, Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 Institute of Astronomy, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Mitaka 181-0015 Department of Astronomy, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA Research Center for Neutrino Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578 Astronomical Institute, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan INAF / Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy Kouji Ohta Department of Astronomy, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502 Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 N. A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA (Received 2005 October 26; accepted 2006 February 27) Abstract We present the properties of Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field. A photometric sample of 89 LAE candidates is constructed from narrow-band (NB816) data down to N B816 = 26.0 (AB) in a continuous 725 arcmin 2 area. Spectra of 39 objects satisfying the photometric selection criteria for LAEs were obtained with Subaru and Keck II Telescopes, among which 28 were confirmed LAEs, one was a nearby galaxy, and eight were unclassified. We also obtained spectra of another 24 NB816-excess objects in the field, identifying six additional LAEs. We find that the Lyα luminosity function derived from the photometric sample is reproduced well by a Schechter function with L ⋆ = 7.9 +3.0 erg s −1 and φ ⋆ = 6.3 −2.0 × 10 −4 Mpc −3 for α = −1.5 (fixed) over the whole luminosity range of L ≃ 3 × 10 42 – 3 × 10 43 erg s −1 . We then measure rest-frame Lyα equivalent widths (EWs) for the confirmed LAEs, to find that the median among the 28 objects satisfying the photometric selection criteria is W i0 = 233 ˚ A. We infer that 30% – 40% of LAEs at z = 5.7 exceed W i0 = 240 ˚ A. These large-EW objects probably cannot be accounted for by ordinary star-forming populations with a Salpeter IMF. We also find that LAEs with fainter far-UV luminosities have larger EWs. Finally, we derive the far-UV luminosity function of LAEs down to M UV ≃ −19.6 using the photometric sample, and compare it with that of Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs). We find that as high as about 80% of LBGs at z ∼ 6 have W i0 ≥ 100 ˚ A, in sharp contrast to lower-z counterparts. Key words: galaxies: evolution — galaxies: high-redshift — galaxies: luminosity function, mass function — galaxies: photometry

Errata : The SUBARU Deep Field Project: Lyman α Emitters at a Redshift of 6.6

We present new results of a deep optical imaging survey using a narrow band filter (NB921) centered at λ = 9196 u A together with B, V, R, i � ,a ndzbroadband filters in the sky area of the Subaru Deep Field, which has been promoted as one of legacy programs of the 8.2m Subaru Telescope. We obtained a photometric sample of 58 Ly α emitter candidates at z ≈ 6.5-6.6 among ∼ 180 strong NB921-excess (z � −NB921 > 1.0) objects together with a color criterion of i � −z � > 1.3. We then obtained optical spectra of 20 objects in our NB921-excess sample, and identified at least nine Ly α emitters at z ∼ 6.5-6.6, including the two emitters reported by Kodaira et al. (2003, PASJ, 55, L17). Since our Ly α-emitter candidates are free from strong amplification of gravitational lensing, we are able to discuss their observational properties from a statistical point of view. Based on these new results, we obtained a lower limit of the star-formation rate density of ρSFR � 5.7 ×10 −4 h0.7 Myr −1 Mpc −3 at z ≈ 6.6, being

DEEP NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY OF PASSIVELY EVOLVING GALAXIES AT z ≳ 1.4*

We present the results of new near-IR spectroscopic observations of passive galaxies at z ≳ 1.4 in a concentration of BzK-selected galaxies in the COSMOS field. The observations have been conducted with Subaru/MOIRCS, and have resulted in absorption lines and/or continuum detection for 18 out of 34 objects. This allows us to measure spectroscopic redshifts for a sample that is almost complete to K_AB = 21. COSMOS photometric redshifts are found in fair agreement overall with the spectroscopic redshifts, with a standard deviation of ~0.05; however, ~30% of objects have photometric redshifts systematically underestimated by up to ~25%. We show that these systematic offsets in photometric redshifts can be removed by using these objects as a training set. All galaxies fall in four distinct redshift spikes at z = 1.43, 1.53, 1.67, and 1.82, with this latter one including seven galaxies. SED fits to broadband fluxes indicate stellar masses in the range of ~4-40 × 10^10 M_☉ and that star formation was quenched ~1 Gyr before the cosmic epoch at which they are observed. The spectra of several individual galaxies have allowed us to measure their Hδ_F indices and the strengths of the 4000 A break, which confirms their identification as passive galaxies, as does a composite spectrum resulting from the co-addition of 17 individual spectra. The effective radii of the galaxies have been measured on the COSMOS HST/ACS i_(F814W)-band image, confirming the coexistence at these redshifts of passive galaxies, which are substantially more compact than their local counterparts with others that follow the local effective radius-stellar mass relation. For the galaxy with the best signal-to-noise spectrum we were able to measure a velocity dispersion of 270 ± 105 km s^(–1) (error bar including systematic errors), indicating that this galaxy lies closely on the virial relation given its stellar mass and effective radius.

Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies at z = 4 and 5 in the Subaru Deep Field: Luminosity Dependence of the Correlation Function Slope

We explored the clustering properties of Lyman break galaxies at z = 4 and 5 with an angular two-point correlation function on the basis of the very deep and wide Subaru Deep Field data. We confirmed the previous result that the clustering strength of LBGs depends on the UV luminosity in the sense that brighter LBGs are more strongly clustered. In addition, we found an apparent dependence of the correlation function slope on UV luminosity for LBGs at both z = 4 and 5. More luminous LBGs have a steeper correlation function. The bias parameter was found to be a scale-dependent function for bright LBGs, whereas it appears to be almost scale-independent for faint LBGs. Luminous LBGs have a higher bias at smaller angular scales, which decreases as the scale increases. To compare these observational results, we constructed numerical mock LBG catalogs based on a semianalytic model of hierarchical clustering combined with high-resolution N-body simulation, carefully mimicking the observational selection effects. The luminosity functions and the overall correlation functions for LBGs at z = 4 and 5 predicted by this mock catalog were found to be almost consistent with the observation. The observed dependence of the clustering on UV luminosity was not reproduced by the model, unless subsamples of distinct halo mass were considered. That is, LBGs belonging to more massive dark halos had steeper and larger amplitude correlation functions. With this model, we found that LBG multiplicity in massive dark halos amplifies the clustering strength at small scales, which steepens the correlation function. The hierarchical clustering model could therefore be reconciled with the observed luminosity dependence of the correlation function if there is a tight correlation between UV luminosity and halo mass. Our finding that the slope of the correlation function depends on luminosity could be an indication that massive dark halos hosted multiple bright LBGs.

Current performance and on-going improvements of the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope

An overview of the current status of the 8.2m Subaru Telescope constructed and operated at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is presented. The basic design concept and the verified performance of the telescope system are described. Also given are the status of the instrument package offered to the astronomical community, the status of operation, and some of the future plans. The status of the telescope reported in a number of SPIE papers as of the summer of 2002 are incorporated with some updates included as of 2004 February. However, readers are encouraged to check the most updated status of the telescope through the home page, http://subarutelescope.org/index.html, and/or the direct contact with the observatory staff.

Diffuse Extragalactic Background Light versus Deep Galaxy Counts in the Subaru Deep Field: Missing Light in the Universe?*

Deep optical and near-infrared galaxy counts are utilized to estimate the extragalactic background light (EBL) coming from normal galactic light in the universe. Although the slope of the number-magnitude relation of the faintest counts is flat enough for the count integration to converge, a considerable fraction of EBL from galaxies could still have been missed in deep galaxy surveys because of various selection effects, including the cosmological dimming of the surface brightness of galaxies. Here we give an estimate of EBL from galaxy counts, in which these selection effects are quantitatively taken into account for the first time, based on reasonable models of galaxy evolution that are consistent with all available data of galaxy counts, size, and redshift distributions. We show that the EBL from galaxies is best resolved into discrete galaxies in the near-infrared bands (J, K) by using the latest data of the Subaru Deep Field; more than 80%-90% of EBL from galaxies has been resolved in these bands. Our result indicates that the contribution by missing galaxies cannot account for the discrepancy between the count integration and recent tentative detections of diffuse EBL in the K band (2.2 μm), and there may be a very diffuse component of EBL that has left no imprints in known galaxy populations.

NEBULAR SPECTRA AND EXPLOSION ASYMMETRY OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

The spectral signatures of asymmetry in Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) explosions are investigated, using a sample of late-time nebular spectra. First, a kinematical model is constructed for SN Ia 2003hv, which can account for the main features in its optical, Near-Infrared (NIR), and Mid-Infrared (Mid-IR) late-time spectra. It is found that an asymmetric off-center model can explain the observed characteristics of SN 2003hv. This model includes a relatively high-density, Fe-rich region which displays a large velocity off-set, and a relatively low density, extended 56Ni-rich region which is more spherically distributed. The high-density region consists of the inner stable Fe-Ni region and outer 56Ni-rich region. Such a distribution may be the result of a delayed-detonation explosion, in which the first deflagration produces the global asymmetry in the innermost ejecta, while the subsequent detonation can lead to the bulk spherical symmetry. This configuration, if viewed from the direction of the off-set, can consistently explain the blueshift in some of the emission lines and virtually no observed shift in other lines in SN 2003hv. For this model, we then explore the effects of different viewing angles and the implications for SNe Ia in general. The model predicts that a variation of the central wavelength, depending on the viewing angle, should be seen in some lines (e.g., [Ni II] λ7378), while the strongest lines (e.g., [Fe III] blend at ~4700 A) will not show this effect. By examining optical nebular spectra of 12 SNe Ia, we have found that such a variation indeed exists. We suggest that the global asymmetry in the innermost ejecta, as likely imprint of the deflagration flame propagation, is a generic feature of SNe Ia. It is also shown that various forbidden lines in the NIR and Mid-IR regimes provide strong diagnostics to further constrain the explosion geometry and thus the explosion mechanism.