Rosalind Hopwood

Herschel-ATLAS: Toward a Sample of ~1000 Strongly Lensed Galaxies

While the selection of strongly lensed galaxies (SLGs) with 500 μm flux density S 500 > 100 mJy has proven to be rather straightforward, for many applications it is important to analyze samples larger than the ones obtained when confining ourselves to such a bright limit. Moreover, only by probing to fainter flux densities is it possible to exploit strong lensing to investigate the bulk of the high-z star-forming galaxy population. We describe HALOS (the Herschel-ATLAS Lensed Objects Selection), a method for efficiently selecting fainter candidate SLGs, reaching a surface density of sime 1.5-2 deg–2, i.e., a factor of about 4-6 higher than that at the 100 mJy flux limit. HALOS will allow the selection of up to ~1000 candidate SLGs (with amplifications μ gsim 2) over the full H-ATLAS survey area. Applying HALOS to the H-ATLAS Science Demonstration Phase field (sime 14.4 deg2) we find 31 candidate SLGs, whose candidate lenses are identified in the VIKING near-infrared catalog. Using the available information on candidate sources and candidate lenses we tentatively estimate a sime 72% purity of the sample. As expected, the purity decreases with decreasing flux density of the sources and with increasing angular separation between candidate sources and lenses. The redshift distribution of the candidate lensed sources is close to that reported for most previous surveys for lensed galaxies, while that of candidate lenses extends to redshifts substantially higher than found in the other surveys. The counts of candidate SLGs are also in good agreement with model predictions. Even though a key ingredient of the method is the deep near-infrared VIKING photometry, we show that H-ATLAS data alone allow the selection of a similarly deep sample of candidate SLGs with an efficiency close to 50%; a slightly lower surface density (sime 1.45 deg–2) can be reached with a ~70% efficiency.While the selection of strongly lensed galaxies (SLGs) with 500 μm flux density S 500 > 100 mJy has proven to be rather straightforward, for many applications it is important to analyze samples larger than the ones obtained when confining ourselves to such a bright limit. Moreover, only by probing to fainter flux densities is it possible to exploit strong lensing to investigate the bulk of the high-z star-forming galaxy population. We describe HALOS (the Herschel-ATLAS Lensed Objects Selection), a method for efficiently selecting fainter candidate SLGs, reaching a surface density of 1.5-2 deg–2, i.e., a factor of about 4-6 higher than that at the 100 mJy flux limit. HALOS will allow the selection of up to ~1000 candidate SLGs (with amplifications μ 2) over the full H-ATLAS survey area. Applying HALOS to the H-ATLAS Science Demonstration Phase field ( 14.4 deg2) we find 31 candidate SLGs, whose candidate lenses are identified in the VIKING near-infrared catalog. Using the available information on candidate sources and candidate lenses we tentatively estimate a 72% purity of the sample. As expected, the purity decreases with decreasing flux density of the sources and with increasing angular separation between candidate sources and lenses. The redshift distribution of the candidate lensed sources is close to that reported for most previous surveys for lensed galaxies, while that of candidate lenses extends to redshifts substantially higher than found in the other surveys. The counts of candidate SLGs are also in good agreement with model predictions. Even though a key ingredient of the method is the deep near-infrared VIKING photometry, we show that H-ATLAS data alone allow the selection of a similarly deep sample of candidate SLGs with an efficiency close to 50%; a slightly lower surface density ( 1.45 deg–2) can be reached with a ~70% efficiency.

Herschel-ATLAS: VISTA VIKING near-infrared counterparts in the Phase 1 GAMA 9-h data

We identify near-infrared Ks-band counterparts to Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) submillimetre (submm) sources, using a preliminary object catalogue from the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey. The submm sources are selected from the H-ATLAS Phase 1 catalogue of the Galaxy and Mass Assembly 9-h field, which includes all objects detected at 250, 350 or inline image with the instrument. We apply and discuss a likelihood ratio method for VIKING candidates within a search radius of 10 arcsec of the 22 000 SPIRE sources with a 5σ detection at inline image. We estimate the fraction of SPIRE sources with a counterpart above the magnitude limit of the VIKING survey to be Q0≈ 0.73. We find that 11 294 (51 per cent) of the SPIRE sources have a best VIKING counterpart with a reliability R≥ 0.8, and the false identification rate of these is estimated to be 4.2 per cent. We expect to miss ∼5 per cent of true VIKING counterparts. There is evidence from Z−J and J−Ks colours that the reliable counterparts to SPIRE galaxies are marginally redder than the field population. We obtain photometric redshifts for ∼68 per cent of all (non-stellar) VIKING candidates with a median redshift of inline image. We have spectroscopic redshifts for 3147 (∼28 per cent) of the reliable counterparts from existing redshift surveys. Comparing to the results of the optical identifications supplied with the Phase 1 catalogue, we find that the use of medium-deep near-infrared data improves the identification rate of reliable counterparts from 36 to 51 per cent.

The infrared properties of sources matched in the WISE all-sky and Herschel ATLAS surveys

We describe the infrared properties of sources detected over ~36 deg2 of sky in the GAMA 15 hr equatorial field, using data from both the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large-Area Survey (H-ATLAS) and Wide-field Infrared Survey (WISE). With 5σ point-source depths of 34 and 0.048 mJy at 250 μm and 3.4 μm, respectively, we are able to identify 50.6% of the H-ATLAS sources in the WISE survey, corresponding to a surface density of ~630 deg–2. Approximately two-thirds of these sources have measured spectroscopic or optical/near-IR photometric redshifts of z < 1. For sources with spectroscopic redshifts at z < 0.3, we find a linear correlation between the infrared luminosity at 3.4 μm and that at 250 μm, with ±50% scatter over ~1.5 orders of magnitude in luminosity, ~109-1010.5 L ☉. By contrast, the matched sources without previously measured redshifts (r 20.5) have 250-350 μm flux density ratios which suggest either high-redshift galaxies (z 1.5) or optically faint low-redshift galaxies with unusually low temperatures (T 20). Their small 3.4-250 μm flux ratios favor a high-redshift galaxy population, as only the most actively star-forming galaxies at low redshift (e.g., Arp 220) exhibit comparable flux density ratios. Furthermore, we find a relatively large active galactic nucleus fraction (~30%) in a 12 μm flux-limited subsample of H-ATLAS sources, also consistent with there being a significant population of high-redshift sources in the no-redshift sample.

Herschel SPIRE FTS relative spectral response calibration

Herschel/SPIRE Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) observations contain emission from both the Herschel Telescope and the SPIRE Instrument itself, both of which are typically orders of magnitude greater than the emission from the astronomical source, and must be removed in order to recover the source spectrum. The effects of the Herschel Telescope and the SPIRE Instrument are removed during data reduction using relative spectral response calibration curves and emission models. We present the evolution of the methods used to derive the relative spectral response calibration curves for the SPIRE FTS. The relationship between the calibration curves and the ultimate sensitivity of calibrated SPIRE FTS data is discussed and the results from the derivation methods are compared. These comparisons show that the latest derivation methods result in calibration curves that impart a factor of between 2 and 100 less noise to the overall error budget, which results in calibrated spectra for individual observations whose noise is reduced by a factor of 2–3, with a gain in the overall spectral sensitivity of 23 % and 21 % for the two detector bands, respectively.

Herschel SPIRE FTS telescope model correction

Emission from the Herschel telescope is the dominant source of radiation for the majority of SPIRE Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) observations, despite the exceptionally low emissivity of the primary and secondary mirrors. Accurate modelling and removal of the telescope contribution is, therefore, an important and challenging aspect of FTS calibration and data reduction pipeline. A dust-contaminated telescope model with time invariant mirror emissivity was adopted before the Herschel launch. However, measured FTS spectra show a clear evolution of the telescope contribution over the mission and strong need for a correction to the standard telescope model in order to reduce residual background (of up to 7 Jy) in the final data products. Systematic changes in observations of dark sky, taken over the course of the mission, provide a measure of the evolution between observed telescope emission and the telescope model. These dark sky observations have been used to derive a time dependent correction to the telescope emissivity that reduces the systematic error in the continuum of the final FTS spectra to ∼0.35 Jy.

Relative pointing offset analysis of calibration targets with repeated observations with Herschel-SPIRE Fourier-transform spectrometer

We present a method to derive the relative pointing offsets for SPIRE Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (FTS) solar system object (SSO) calibration targets, which were observed regularly throughout the Herschel mission. We construct ratios Robs(ν) of the spectra for all observations of a given source with respect to a reference. The reference observation is selected iteratively to be the one with the highest observed continuum. Assuming that any pointing offset leads to an overall shift of the continuum level, then these Robs(ν) represent the relative flux loss due to mispointing. The mispointing effects are more pronounced for a smaller beam, so we consider only the FTS short wavelength array (SSW, 958–1546 GHz) to derive a pointing correction. We obtain the relative pointing offset by comparing Robs(ν) to a grid of expected losses for a model source at different distances from the centre of the beam, under the assumption that the SSW FTS beam can be well approximated by a Gaussian. In order to avoid dependency on the point source flux conversion, which uses a particular observation of Uranus, we use extended source flux calibrated spectra to construct Robs(ν) for the SSOs. In order to account for continuum variability, due to the changing distance from the Herschel telescope, the SSO ratios are normalised by the expected model ratios for the corresponding observing epoch. We confirm the accuracy of the derived pointing offset by comparing the results with a number of control observations, where the actual pointing of Herschel is known with good precision. Using the method we derived pointing offsets for repeated observations of Uranus (including observations centred on off-axis detectors), Neptune, Ceres and NGC 7027. The results are used to validate and improve the point-source flux calibration of the FTS.

Spitzer-IRAC identification of Herschel-Atlas SPIRE sources

We use spitzer-IRAC data to identify near-infrared counterparts to submillimeter galaxies detected with Herschel-SPIRE at 250um in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS). Using a likelihood ratio analysis we identify 146 reliable IRAC counterparts to 123 SPIRE sources out of the 159. We find that, compared to the field population, the SPIRE counterparts occupy a distinct region of 3.6 and 4.5um color-magnitude space, and we use this property to identify a further 23 counterparts to 13 SPIRE sources. The IRAC identification rate of 86% is significantly higher than those that have been demonstrated with wide-field ground-based optical and near-IR imaging of Herschel fields. We estimate a false identification rate of 3.6%, corresponding to 4 to 5 sources. Among the 73 counterparts that are undetected in SDSS, 57 have both 3.6 and 4.5um coverage. Of these 43 have [3.6] - [4.5]> 0 indicating that they are likely to be at z > 1.4. Thus, ~ 40% of identified SPIRE galaxies are likely to be high redshift (z > 1.4) sources. We discuss the statistical properties of the IRAC-identified SPIRE galaxy sample including far-IR luminosities, dust temperatures, star-formation rates, and stellar masses. The majority of our detected galaxies have 10^10 to 10^11 L_sun total IR luminosities and are not intense starbursting galaxies as those found at z ~ 2, but they have a factor of 2 to 3 above average specific star-formation rates compared to near-IR selected galaxy samples.

Herschel SPIRE fourier transform spectrometer: calibration of its bright-source mode

The Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) of the Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE) on board the ESA Herschel Space Observatory has two detector setting modes: (a) a nominal mode, which is optimized for observing moderately bright to faint astronomical targets, and (b) a bright-source mode recommended for sources significantly brighter than 500 Jy, within the SPIRE FTS bandwidth of 446.7–1544 GHz (or 194–671 microns in wavelength), which employs a reduced detector responsivity and out-of-phase analog signal amplifier/demodulator. We address in detail the calibration issues unique to the bright-source mode, describe the integration of the bright-mode data processing into the existing pipeline for the nominal mode, and show that the flux calibration accuracy of the bright-source mode is generally within 2 % of that of the nominal mode, and that the bright-source mode is 3 to 4 times less sensitive than the nominal mode.

Herschel SPIRE FTS spectral mapping calibration

The Herschel SPIRE Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) performs spectral imaging in the 447–1546 GHz band. It can observe in three spatial sampling modes: sparse mode, with a single pointing on sky, or intermediate or full modes with 1 and 1/2 beam spacing, respectively. In this paper, we investigate the uncertainty and repeatability for fully sampled FTS mapping observations. The repeatability is characterised using nine observations of the Orion Bar. Metrics are derived based on the ratio of the measured intensity in each observation compared to that in the combined spectral cube from all observations. The mean relative deviation is determined to be within 2 %, and the pixel-by-pixel scatter is ∼ 7 %. The scatter increases towards the edges of the maps. The uncertainty in the frequency scale is also studied, and the spread in the line centre velocity across the maps is found to be ∼ 15 km s − 1. Other causes of uncertainty are also discussed including the effect of pointing and the additive uncertainty in the continuum.

In-orbit performance of the Herschel/SPIRE imaging Fourier transform spectrometer: lessons learned

The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) is one of three scientific instruments on board the European Space Agencys Herschel Space Observatory which ended its operational phase on 29 April 2013. The low to medium resolution spectroscopic capability of SPIRE is provided by an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer (iFTS) of the Mach-Zehnder configuration. With their high throughput, broad spectral coverage, and variable resolution, coupled with their well-defined instrumental line shape and intrinsic wavelength and intensity calibration, iFTS are becoming increasingly common in far-infrared space astronomy missions. The performance of the SPIRE imaging spectrometer will be reviewed and example results presented. The lessons learned from the measured performance of the spectrometer as they apply to future missions will be discussed.