Deep Survey (deep + survey)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The evolution of submillimetre galaxies: two populations and a redshift cut-off

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2008
J. V. Wall
ABSTRACT We explore the epoch dependence of number density and star formation rate for submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) found at 850 ,m. The study uses a sample of 38 SMG in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-N field, for which cross-waveband identifications have been obtained for 35/38 members together with redshift measurements or estimates. A maximum-likelihood analysis is employed, along with the ,single-source-survey' technique. We find a diminution in both space-density and star formation rate at z > 3, closely mimicking the redshift cut-offs found for quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) selected in different wavebands. The diminution in redshift is particularly marked at a significance level too small to measure. The data further suggest, at a significance level of about 0.001, that two separately evolving populations may be present, with distinct luminosity functions. These results parallel the different evolutionary behaviours of Luminous Infrared Galaxies and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies, and represent another manifestation of ,cosmic down-sizing', suggesting that differential evolution extends to the most extreme star-forming galaxies. [source]


A sample of mJy radio sources at 1.4 GHz in the Lynx and Hercules fields , I. Radio imaging, multicolour photometry and spectroscopy

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2007
E. E. Rigby
ABSTRACT With the goal of identifying high-redshift radio galaxies with Fanaroff,Riley class I (FR I) classification, here are presented high-resolution, wide-field radio observations, near-infrared and optical imaging and multi-object spectroscopy of two fields of the Leiden,Berkeley Deep Survey. These fields, Hercules.1 and Lynx.2, contain a complete sample of 81 radio sources with S1.4 GHz > 0.5 mJy within 0.6 deg2. This sample will form the basis for a study of the population and cosmic evolution of high-redshift, low-power, FR I radio sources which will be presented in Paper II. Currently, the host galaxy identification fraction is 86 per cent with 11 sources remaining unidentified at a level of r,, 25.2 mag (Hercules; four sources) or r,, 24.4 mag (Lynx; seven sources) or K, 20 mag. Spectroscopic redshifts have been determined for 49 per cent of the sample and photometric redshift estimates are presented for the remainder of the sample. [source]


The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2007
A. Lawrence
ABSTRACT We describe the goals, design, implementation, and initial progress of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS), a seven-year sky survey which began in 2005 May. UKIDSS is being carried out using the UKIRT Wide Field Camera (WFCAM), which has the largest étendue of any infrared astronomical instrument to date. It is a portfolio of five survey components covering various combinations of the filter set ZYJHK and H2. The Large Area Survey, the Galactic Clusters Survey, and the Galactic Plane Survey cover approximately 7000 deg2 to a depth of K, 18; the Deep Extragalactic Survey covers 35 deg2 to K, 21, and the Ultra Deep Survey covers 0.77 deg2 to K, 23. Summed together UKIDSS is 12 times larger in effective volume than the 2MASS survey. The prime aim of UKIDSS is to provide a long-term astronomical legacy data base; the design is, however, driven by a series of specific goals , for example, to find the nearest and faintest substellar objects, to discover Population II brown dwarfs, if they exist, to determine the substellar mass function, to break the z= 7 quasar barrier; to determine the epoch of re-ionization, to measure the growth of structure from z= 3 to the present day, to determine the epoch of spheroid formation, and to map the Milky Way through the dust, to several kpc. The survey data are being uniformly processed. Images and catalogues are being made available through a fully queryable user interface , the WFCAM Science Archive (http://surveys.roe.ac.uk/wsa). The data are being released in stages. The data are immediately public to astronomers in all ESO member states, and available to the world after 18 months. Before the formal survey began, UKIRT and the UKIDSS consortia collaborated in obtaining and analysing a series of small science verification (SV) projects to complete the commissioning of the camera. We show some results from these SV projects in order to demonstrate the likely power of the eventual complete survey. Finally, using the data from the First Data Release, we assess how well UKIDSS is meeting its design targets so far. [source]


The possible detection of high-redshift Type II QSOs in deep fields

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2006
Avery Meiksin
ABSTRACT The colours of high-redshift Type II quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are synthesized from observations of moderate-redshift systems. It is shown that Type II QSOs are comparable to starbursts at matching the colours of z850 -dropouts and i775 -drops in the Hubble UltraDeep Field, and more naturally account for the bluest objects detected. Type II QSOs may also account for some of the i775 -drops detected in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) fields. It is shown that by combining imaging data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, it will be possible to clearly separate Type II QSOs from Type I QSOs and starbursts based on their colours. Similarly, it is shown that the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) ZYJ filters may be used to discriminate high-redshift Type II QSOs from other objects. If Type II QSOs are prevalent at high redshifts, then active galactic nuclei (AGNs) may be major contributors to the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium. [source]


The nature, evolution, clustering and X-ray properties of extremely red galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South/Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey field

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2003
Nathan D. Roche
ABSTRACT We identify a very deep sample of 198 extremely red objects (EROs) in the Chandra Deep Field South, selected on the basis of I775,Ks > 3.92, to a limit Ks, 22 using the public European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) survey. The ERO number counts flatten from a slope of ,, 0.59 to 0.16 at K > 19.5, where they remain below the predictions for pure luminosity evolution, and fall below even a non-evolving model. This suggests there is a significant decrease with redshift in the comoving number density of passive/very red galaxies. We investigate the angular correlation function, ,(,), of these EROs and detect positive clustering for Ks= 20.5,22.0 sources. The EROs show stronger clustering than other galaxies at the same magnitudes. The ,(,) amplitudes are best-fitted by models in which the EROs have a comoving correlation radius r0, 12.5 ± 1.2 h,1 Mpc, or r0, 21.4 ± 2.0 h,1 Mpc in a stable clustering model. We find a 40-arcsec diameter overdensity of 10 EROs, centred on the Chandra X-ray source (and ERO) XID:58. On the basis of colours we estimate that about seven, including XID:58, belong to a cluster of EROs at z, 1.5. The 942-ks Chandra survey detected 73 X-ray sources in the area of our ERO sample, 17 of which coincide with EROs. Of these sources, 13 have X-ray properties indicative of obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN), while the faintest four may be starbursts. In addition, we find evidence that Chandra sources and EROs are positively cross-correlated at non-zero (,2,20 arcsec) separations, implying that they tend to trace the same large-scale structures. In conclusion, these findings appear consistent with a scenario where EROs are the z > 1 progenitors of elliptical/S0 galaxies, some forming very early as massive spheroids, which are strongly clustered and may evolve via an AGN phase, others more recently from mergers of disc galaxies. [source]


Supersoft sources in M31: Comparing the XMM-Newton deep survey, ROSAT and Chandra catalogues,

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2 2010
H. Stiele
Abstract To investigate the transient nature of supersoft sources (SSSs) in M 31, we compared SSS candidates ofthe XMM-Newton Deep Survey, ROSAT PSPC surveys and the Chandra catalogues in the same field. We found 40 SSSs in the XMM-Newton observations. While 12 of the XMM-Newton sources were brighter than the limiting flux of the ROSAT PSPC survey, only two were detected with ROSAT ,10 yr earlier. Five correlate with recent optical novae which explains why they were not detected by ROSAT. The remaining 28 XMM-Newton SSSs have fluxes below the ROSAT detection threshold. Nevertheless we found one correlation with a ROSAT source, which had significantly larger fluxes than during the XMM-Newton observations. Ten of the XMM-Newton SSSs were detected by Chandra with <1, ,6yr between the observations. Five were also classified as SSSs by Chandra. Of the 30 ROSAT SSSs three were confirmed with XMM-Newton, while for 11 sources other classifications are suggested. Of the remaining 16 sources one correlates with an optical nova. Of the 42 Chandra very-soft sources five are classified as XMM-Newton SSSs, while for 22 we suggest other classifications. Of the remaining 15 sources, nine are classified as transient by Chandra, one of them correlates with an optical nova. These findings underlined the high variability of the sources of this class and the connection between SSSs and optical novae. Only three sources, were detected by all three missions as SSSs. Thus they are visible for more than a decade, despite their variability (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]


The stellar mass density at z, 6 from Spitzer imaging of i,-drop galaxies

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2007
Laurence P. Eyles
ABSTRACT We measure the ages, stellar masses, and star formation histories of z, 6 galaxies, observed within 1 Gyr of the big bang. We use imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Spitzer Space Telescope from the public ,Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey' (GOODS), coupled with ground-based near-infrared imaging, to measure their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from 0.8,5 ,m, spanning the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) and optical. From our sample of ,50 ,i,-drop' Lyman-break star-forming galaxies in GOODS-South with z,AB < 27, we focus on ,30 with reliable photometric or spectroscopic redshifts. Half of these are confused with foreground sources at Spitzer resolution, but from the 16 with clean photometry we find that a surprisingly large fraction (40 per cent) have evidence for substantial Balmer/4000-Ĺ spectral breaks. This indicates the presence of old underlying stellar populations that dominate the stellar masses. For these objects, we find ages of ,200,700 Myr, implying formation redshifts of 7 ,zf, 18, and large stellar masses in the range ,1,3 × 1010 M,. Analysis of seven i,-drops that are undetected at 3.6 ,m indicates that these are younger, considerably less massive systems. We calculate that emission line contamination should not severely affect our photometry or derived results. Using SED fits out to 8 ,m, we find little evidence for substantial intrinsic dust reddening in our sources. We use our individual galaxy results to obtain an estimate of the global stellar mass density at z, 6. Correcting for incompleteness in our sample, we find the z, 6 comoving stellar mass density to be 2.5 × 106 M, Mpc,3. This is a lower limit, as post-starburst and dust-obscured objects, and also galaxies below our selection thresholds, are not accounted for. From our results, we are able to explore the star formation histories of our selected galaxies, and we suggest that the past global star formation rate may have been much higher than that observed at the z, 6 epoch. The associated UV flux we infer at z > 7 could have played a major role in reionizing the Universe. [source]


Supersoft sources in M31: Comparing the XMM-Newton deep survey, ROSAT and Chandra catalogues,

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 2 2010
H. Stiele
Abstract To investigate the transient nature of supersoft sources (SSSs) in M 31, we compared SSS candidates ofthe XMM-Newton Deep Survey, ROSAT PSPC surveys and the Chandra catalogues in the same field. We found 40 SSSs in the XMM-Newton observations. While 12 of the XMM-Newton sources were brighter than the limiting flux of the ROSAT PSPC survey, only two were detected with ROSAT ,10 yr earlier. Five correlate with recent optical novae which explains why they were not detected by ROSAT. The remaining 28 XMM-Newton SSSs have fluxes below the ROSAT detection threshold. Nevertheless we found one correlation with a ROSAT source, which had significantly larger fluxes than during the XMM-Newton observations. Ten of the XMM-Newton SSSs were detected by Chandra with <1, ,6yr between the observations. Five were also classified as SSSs by Chandra. Of the 30 ROSAT SSSs three were confirmed with XMM-Newton, while for 11 sources other classifications are suggested. Of the remaining 16 sources one correlates with an optical nova. Of the 42 Chandra very-soft sources five are classified as XMM-Newton SSSs, while for 22 we suggest other classifications. Of the remaining 15 sources, nine are classified as transient by Chandra, one of them correlates with an optical nova. These findings underlined the high variability of the sources of this class and the connection between SSSs and optical novae. Only three sources, were detected by all three missions as SSSs. Thus they are visible for more than a decade, despite their variability (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]