Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract:

We utilize deep near-infrared survey data from the UltraVISTA fourth data release (DR4) and the VIDEO survey, in combination with overlapping optical and Spitzer data, to search for bright star-forming galaxies at z ≳ 7.5. Using a full photometric redshift fitting analysis applied to the ∼6 deg2 of imaging searched, we find 27 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), including 20 new sources, with best-fitting photometric redshifts in the range 7.4 < z < 9.1. From this sample, we derive the rest-frame UV luminosity function at z = 8 and z = 9 out to extremely bright UV magnitudes (MUV ≃ −23) for the first time. We find an excess in the number density of bright galaxies in comparison to the typically assumed Schechter functional form derived from fainter samples. Combined with previous studies at lower redshift, our results show that there is little evolution in the number density of very bright (MUV ∼ −23) LBGs between z ≃ 5 and z ≃ 9. The tentative detection of an LBG with best-fitting photometric redshift of z = 10.9 ± 1.0 in our data is consistent with the derived evolution. We show that a double power-law fit with a brightening characteristic magnitude (ΔM*/Δz ≃ −0.5) and a steadily steepening bright-end slope (Δβ/Δz ≃ −0.5) provides a good description of the z > 5 data over a wide range in absolute UV magnitude (−23 < MUV < −17). We postulate that the observed evolution can be explained by a lack of mass quenching at very high redshifts in combination with increasing dust obscuration within the first ∼1Gyr of galaxy evolution.

Abstract:

ABSTRACT We cross-correlate maps of the thermal Sunyaev–Zeldovich (tSZ) Compton-y parameter published by Planck with the projected distribution of galaxies in a set of low-redshift tomographic bins. We use the nearly full-sky 2MASS Photometric Redshift and WISE × SuperCOSMOS public catalogues, covering the redshift range z ≲ 0.4. Our measurements allow us to place constraints on the redshift dependence of the mass–observable relation for tSZ cluster count analyses in terms of the so-called hydrostatic mass bias parameter $1-b_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm H}$. These results can also be interpreted as measurements of the bias-weighted average gas pressure 〈bPe〉 as a function of redshift, a quantity that can be related to the thermodynamics of gas inside haloes and used to constrain energy injection processes. We measure $1-b_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm H}$ with $\sim \!13{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ precision in six equispaced redshift bins, and find no evidence for a redshift-dependent mass bias parameter, in agreement with previous analyses. Our mean value of $1-b_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm H}= 0.59\pm 0.03$ is also in good agreement with the one estimated by the joint analysis of Planck cluster counts and cosmic microwave background anisotropies. Our measurements of 〈bPe〉, at the level of $\sim \!10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ in each bin, are the most stringent constraints on the redshift dependence of this parameter to date, and agree well both with previous measurements and with theoretical expectations from shock-heating models.