Ray A. Lucas

The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results from Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging

This special issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters is dedicated to presenting initial results from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) that are primarily, but not exclusively, based on multiband imaging data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The survey covers roughly 320 arcmin2 in the ACS F435W, F606W, F814W, and F850LP bands, divided into two well-studied fields. Existing deep observations from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and ground-based facilities are supplemented with new, deep imaging in the optical and near-infrared from the European Southern Observatory and from the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Deep observations with the Space Infrared Telescope Facility are scheduled. Reduced data from all facilities are being released worldwide within 3-6 months of acquisition. Together, this data set provides two deep reference fields for studies of distant normal and active galaxies, supernovae, and faint stars in our own Galaxy. This Letter serves to outline the survey strategy and describe the specific data that have been used in the accompanying letters, summarizing the reduction procedures and sensitivity limits.

The Hubble Deep Field: Observations, data reduction, and galaxy photometry

The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is a Director’s Discretionary program on HST in Cycle 5 to image an undistinguished field at high Galactic latitude in four passbands as deeply as reasonably possible. These images provide the most detailed view to date of distant field galaxies and are likely to be important for a wide range of studies in galaxy evolution and cosmology. In order to optimize observing in the time available, a field in the northern continuous viewing zone was selected and images were taken for ten consecutive days, or approximately 150 orbits. Shorter 1-2 orbit images were obtained of the fields immediately adjacent to the primary HDF in order to facilitate spectroscopic follow-up by ground-based telescopes. The observations were made from 18 to 30 December 1995, and both raw and reduced data have been put in the public domain as a community service. We present a summary of the criteria for selecting the field, the rationale behind the filter selection and observing times in each band, and the strategies for planning the observations to maximize the exposure time while avoiding earth-scattered light. Data reduction procedures are outlined, and images of the combined frames in each band are presented. Objects detected in these images are listed in a catalog with their basic photometric parameters.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

This paper presents the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), a 1 million s exposure of an 11 arcmin2 region in the southern sky with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope using Directors Discretionary Time. The exposure time was divided among four filters, F435W (B435), F606W (V606), F775W (i 775), and F850LP (z850), to give approximately uniform limiting magnitudes mAB ~ 29 for point sources. The image contains at least 10,000 objects, presented here as a catalog, the vast majority of which are galaxies. Visual inspection of the images shows few if any galaxies at redshifts greater than ~4 that resemble present-day spiral or elliptical galaxies. The image reinforces the conclusion from the original Hubble Deep Field that galaxies evolved strongly during the first few billion years in the infancy of the universe. Using the Lyman break dropout method to derive samples of galaxies at redshifts between 4 and 7, it is possible to study the apparent evolution of the galaxy luminosity function and number density. Examination of the catalog for dropout sources yields 504 B435 dropouts, 204 V 606 dropouts, and 54 i775 dropouts. The i775 dropouts are most likely galaxies at redshifts between 6 and 7. Using these samples, which are at different redshifts but derived from the same data, we find no evidence for a change in the characteristic luminosity of galaxies but some evidence for a decrease in their number densities between redshifts of 4 and 7. Assessing the factors needed to derive the luminosity function from the data suggests that there is considerable uncertainty in parameters from samples discovered with different instruments and derived using independent assumptions about the source populations. This assessment calls into question some of the strong conclusions of recently published work on distant galaxies. The ultraviolet luminosity density of these samples is dominated by galaxies fainter than the characteristic luminosity, and the HUDF reveals considerably more luminosity than shallower surveys. The apparent ultraviolet luminosity density of galaxies appears to decrease from redshifts of a few to redshifts greater than 6, although this decrease may be the result of faint-end incompleteness in the most distant samples. The highest redshift samples show that star formation was already vigorous at the earliest epochs at which galaxies have been observed, less than 1 billion years after the big bang.

Spitzer Observations of Massive, Red Galaxies at High Redshift*

We study massive galaxies at z ~ 1-3.5 using HST optical imaging, ground-based near-IR imaging, and Spitzer observations at 3-24 μm. From Ks-selected galaxies in the 130 arcmin2 GOODS-S field, we identify 153 distant red galaxies (DRGs) with (J - Ks)Vega ≥ 2.3. This sample is approximately complete in stellar mass for passively evolving galaxies above 1011 M☉ and z ≤ 3. Roughly half of the DRGs are objects whose optical and near-IR rest-frame light is dominated by evolved stars combined with ongoing star formation (at zmed ~ 2.5), and the others are galaxies whose light is dominated by heavily reddened (A1600 4-6 mag) starbursts (at zmed ~ 1.7). Very few DRGs (10%) have no indication of current star formation. DRGs at z ~ 1.5-3 with stellar masses ≥1011 M☉ have specific star formation rates (SFRs per unit mass) including the reradiated far-IR emission that range from 0.2 to 10 Gyr-1. Based on the X-ray luminosities and rest-frame near-IR colors, roughly one-quarter of the DRGs contain AGNs, implying that the growth of supermassive black holes coincides with the formation of massive galaxies. At 1.5 ≤ z ≤ 3, the DRGs with M ≥ 1011 M☉ have an integrated specific SFR comparable to the global value of all galaxies. In contrast, galaxies at z ~ 0.3-0.75 with M ≥ 1011 M☉ have an integrated specific SFR less than the global value and more than an order of magnitude lower than that for massive DRGs. At z 1, lower mass galaxies dominate the overall cosmic mass assembly. This suggests that the bulk of star formation in massive galaxies occurs at early cosmic epochs and is largely complete by z ~ 1.5. Further mass assembly in these galaxies takes place with low specific SFRs.

CANDELS: Constraining the AGN-Merger Connection with Host Morphologies at z 2

Using Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 imaging taken as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey, we examine the role that major galaxy mergers play in triggering active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity at z ~ 2. Our sample consists of 72 moderate-luminosity (L X ~ 1042-44 erg s–1) AGNs at 1.5 < z < 2.5 that are selected using the 4 Ms Chandra observations in the Chandra Deep Field South, the deepest X-ray observations to date. Employing visual classifications, we have analyzed the rest-frame optical morphologies of the AGN host galaxies and compared them to a mass-matched control sample of 216 non-active galaxies at the same redshift. We find that most of the AGNs reside in disk galaxies (51.4+5.8 – 5.9%), while a smaller percentage are found in spheroids (27.8+5.8 – 4.6%). Roughly 16.7+5.3 – 3.5% of the AGN hosts have highly disturbed morphologies and appear to be involved in a major merger or interaction, while most of the hosts (55.6+5.6 – 5.9%) appear relatively relaxed and undisturbed. These fractions are statistically consistent with the fraction of control galaxies that show similar morphological disturbances. These results suggest that the hosts of moderate-luminosity AGNs are no more likely to be involved in an ongoing merger or interaction relative to non-active galaxies of similar mass at z ~ 2. The high disk fraction observed among the AGN hosts also appears to be at odds with predictions that merger-driven accretion should be the dominant AGN fueling mode at z ~ 2, even at moderate X-ray luminosities. Although we cannot rule out that minor mergers are responsible for triggering these systems, the presence of a large population of relatively undisturbed disk-like hosts suggests that the stochastic accretion of gas plays a greater role in fueling AGN activity at z ~ 2 than previously thought.

NEW OBSERVATIONS AND A PHOTOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF POLAR-RING GALAXIES

A photographic atlas of polar-ring galaxies and related objects is presented. The atlas includes kinematically confirmed polar-ring galaxies (category A), good candidates based on their morphological appearance (category B), possible candidates (category C), and possibly related objects (category D). New photometric and kinematic observations are reported for several galaxies in the catalog, including observations that show that UGC 7576 and UGC 9796 ( = II ZW 73) are S0 galaxies with polar rings. Roughly 0.5 percent of all nearby S0 galaxies appear to have polar rings. When corrected for various selection effects (e.g., nonoptimal viewing orientation, possible dimming, or limited lifetime of the ring) the percentage increases to about 5 percent of S0 galaxies which have, or have had a polar ring.

WFPC2 Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South

The Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) observations targeted a high Galactic latitude field near QSO J2233-606. We present Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations of the field in four wide bandpasses centered at roughly 300, 450, 606, and 814 nm. Observations, data reduction procedures, and noise properties of the final images are discussed in detail. A catalog of sources is presented, and the number counts and color distributions of the galaxies are compared with a new catalog of the original Hubble Deep Field (HDF-N) that has been constructed in an identical manner. The two fields are qualitatively similar, with the galaxy number counts for the two fields agreeing to within 20%. The HDF-S has more candidate Lyman break galaxies at z > 2 than the HDF-N. The star formation rate per unit volume computed from the HDF-S, based on the UV luminosity of high-redshift candidates, is a factor of 1.9 higher than from the HDF-N at z ~ 2.7, and a factor of 1.3 higher at z ~ 4.

Agn host galaxies at z ∼ 0.4-1.3 : Bulge-dominated and lacking merger-agn connection

We investigate morphological structure parameters and local environments of distant moderate-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) host galaxies in the overlap between the HST/ACS observations of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) and the two Chandra Deep Fields. We compute near-neighbor counts and BViz asymmetry (A) and concentration (C) indices for ≈35,500 GOODS/ACS galaxies complete to , including z850 ≈ 26.6 the resolved hosts of 322 X-ray–selected AGNs. Distributions of (1) asymmetry for 130 AGN hosts z z 850 850 ! 23 and (2) near-neighbor counts for 173 AGN hosts are both consistent with non-AGN control samples. z850 ! 24 This implies no close connection between recent galaxy mergers and moderate-luminosity AGN activity out to appreciable look-back times ( ), approaching the epoch of peak AGN activity in the universe. The distri- z 1.3 bution of z850 C for the AGN hosts is offset by compared to the non-AGN, a 6.4 DC ≈ 0.5 j discrepancy much larger than can be explained by the possible influence of unresolved emission from the AGN or a circumnuclear starburst. The local universe association between AGN and bulge-dominated galaxies thus persists to substantial look-back time. We discuss implications in the context of the low-redshift supermassive central black hole mass correlation with host galaxy properties, including concentration.

GOODS-HERSCHEL AND CANDELS: THE MORPHOLOGIES OF ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2*

Using deep 100 and 160 μm observations in GOODS-South from GOODS-Herschel, combined with high-resolution HST/WFC3 near-infrared imaging from CANDELS, we present the first detailed morphological analysis of a complete, far-infrared (FIR) selected sample of 52 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs; L IR > 1012 L ☉) at z ~ 2. We also make use of a comparison sample of galaxies with lower IR luminosities but with the same redshift and H-band magnitude distribution. Our visual classifications of these two samples indicate that the fractions of objects with disk and spheroid morphologies are roughly the same but that there are significantly more mergers, interactions, and irregular galaxies among the ULIRGs (72+5 – 7% versus 32 ± 3%). The combination of disk and irregular/interacting morphologies suggests that early-stage interactions, minor mergers, and disk instabilities could play an important role in ULIRGs at z ~ 2. We compare these fractions with those of a z ~ 1 sample selected from GOODS-H and COSMOS across a wide luminosity range and find that the fraction of disks decreases systematically with L IR while the fraction of mergers and interactions increases, as has been observed locally. At comparable luminosities, the fraction of ULIRGs with various morphological classifications is similar at z ~ 2 and z ~ 1, though there are slightly fewer mergers and slightly more disks at higher redshift. We investigate the position of the z ~ 2 ULIRGs, along with 70 z ~ 2 LIRGs, on the specific star formation rate versus redshift plane, and find 52 systems to be starbursts (i.e., they lie more than a factor of three above the main-sequence relation). We find that many of these systems are clear interactions and mergers (~50%) compared to only 24% of systems on the main sequence relation. If irregular disks are included as potential minor mergers, then we find that up to ~73% of starbursts are involved in a merger or interaction at some level. Although the final coalescence of a major merger may not be required for the high luminosities of ULIRGs at z ~ 2 as is the case locally, the large fraction (50%-73%) of interactions at all stages and potential minor mergers suggests that these processes contribute significantly to the high star formation rates of ULIRGs at z ~ 2.

Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Globular Clusters in M87 and an Estimate of H0

Hubble Space Telescope observations of over 1000 globular clusters in the central region of M87 have been made using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The limiting magnitude in V is 26 mag, more than 2 mag beyond the turnover of the luminosity function. The distribution is well fitted by a Gaussian profile with a mean of m -->V0 = 23.72 ± 0.06 mag and a width of 1.40 ± 0.06 mag. Assuming a value of M -->V0 = -7.4 ± 0.25 mag for the globular cluster luminosity function results in a distance modulus of (m - M) = 31.12 mag to the Virgo Cluster. Using a value of ΔComa-Virgo(m - M) = 3.71 ± 0.10 mag and adopting a velocity for the Coma Cluster of 7188 km s-1 result in a value for the Hubble constant of H0 = 78 ± 11 km s-1 Mpc-1. The V - I color distribution is bimodal, with peaks at V - I = 0.95 mag and 1.20 mag. The mean size of the clusters is Reff = 3 pc, with a scatter of 1 pc.