Galaxy formation and evolution

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The Oxford SWIFT spectrograph: First commissioning and on-sky results

Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering 7735:PART 1 (2010)

Authors:

N Thatte, M Tecza, F Clarke, T Goodsall, L Fogarty, R Houghton, G Salter, N Scott, RL Davies, A Bouchez, R Dekany

Abstract:

The Oxford SWIFT spectrograph, an I & z band (6500-10500 A) integral field spectrograph, is designed to operate as a facility instrument at the 200 inch Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain, in conjunction with the Palomar laser guide star adaptive optics system PALAO (and its upgrade to PALM3000). SWIFT provides spectra at R(≡λ/Δλ)∼4000 of a contiguous two-dimensional field, 44 x 89 spatial pixels (spaxels) in size, at spatial scales of 0.235″;, 0.16″, and 0.08″ per spaxel. It employs two 250μm thick, fully depleted, extremely red sensitive 4k X 2k CCD detector arrays (manufactured by LBNL) that provide excellent quantum efficiency out to 1000 nm. We describe the commissioning observations and present the measured values of a number of instrument parameters. We also present some first science results that give a taste of the range of science programs where SWIFT can have a substantial impact. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.
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The detection of a population of submillimeter-bright, strongly lensed galaxies.

Science 330:6005 (2010) 800-804

Authors:

Mattia Negrello, R Hopwood, G De Zotti, A Cooray, A Verma, J Bock, DT Frayer, MA Gurwell, A Omont, R Neri, H Dannerbauer, LL Leeuw, E Barton, J Cooke, S Kim, E da Cunha, G Rodighiero, P Cox, DG Bonfield, MJ Jarvis, S Serjeant, RJ Ivison, S Dye, I Aretxaga, DH Hughes, E Ibar, F Bertoldi, I Valtchanov, S Eales, L Dunne, SP Driver, R Auld, S Buttiglione, A Cava, CA Grady, DL Clements, A Dariush, J Fritz, D Hill, JB Hornbeck, L Kelvin, G Lagache, M Lopez-Caniego, J Gonzalez-Nuevo, S Maddox, E Pascale, M Pohlen, EE Rigby, A Robotham, C Simpson, DJB Smith, P Temi, MA Thompson, BE Woodgate, DG York, JE Aguirre, A Beelen, A Blain, AJ Baker, M Birkinshaw, R Blundell, CM Bradford, D Burgarella, L Danese, JS Dunlop, S Fleuren, J Glenn, AI Harris, J Kamenetzky, RE Lupu, RJ Maddalena, BF Madore, PR Maloney, H Matsuhara, MJ Michaowski, EJ Murphy, BJ Naylor, H Nguyen, C Popescu, S Rawlings, D Rigopoulou, D Scott, KS Scott, M Seibert, I Smail, RJ Tuffs, JD Vieira, PP van der Werf, J Zmuidzinas

Abstract:

Gravitational lensing is a powerful astrophysical and cosmological probe and is particularly valuable at submillimeter wavelengths for the study of the statistical and individual properties of dusty star-forming galaxies. However, the identification of gravitational lenses is often time-intensive, involving the sifting of large volumes of imaging or spectroscopic data to find few candidates. We used early data from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey to demonstrate that wide-area submillimeter surveys can simply and easily detect strong gravitational lensing events, with close to 100% efficiency.
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The detection of a population of submillimeter-bright, strongly lensed galaxies

Science 330:6005 (2010) 800-804

Authors:

M Negrello, R Hopwood, G De Zotti, A Cooray, A Verma, J Bock, DT Frayer, MA Gurwell, A Omont, R Neri, H Dannerbauer, LL Leeuw, E Barton, J Cooke, S Kim, E Da Cunha, G Rodighiero, P Cox, DG Bonfield, MJ Jarvis, S Serjeant, RJ Ivison, S Dye, I Aretxaga, DH Hughes, E Ibar, F Bertoldi, I Valtchanov, S Eales, L Dunne, SP Driver, R Auld, S Buttiglione, A Cava, CA Grady, DL Clements, A Dariush, J Fritz, D Hill, JB Hornbeck, L Kelvin, G Lagache, M Lopez-Caniego, J Gonzalez-Nuevo, S Maddox, E Pascale, M Pohlen, EE Rigby, A Robotham, C Simpson, DJB Smith, P Temi, MA Thompson, BE Woodgate, DG York, JE Aguirre, A Beelen, A Blain, AJ Baker, M Birkinshaw, R Blundell, CM Bradford, D Burgarella, L Danese, JS Dunlop, S Fleuren, J Glenn, AI Harris, J Kamenetzky, RE Lupu, RJ Maddalena, BF Madore, PR Maloney, H Matsuhara, MJ Michaowski, EJ Murphy, BJ Naylor, H Nguyen, C Popescu, S Rawlings, D Rigopoulou, D Scott, KS Scott, M Seibert, I Smail, RJ Tuffs, JD Vieira, PP Van Der Werf, J Zmuidzinas

Abstract:

Gravitational lensing is a powerful astrophysical and cosmological probe and is particularly valuable at submillimeter wavelengths for the study of the statistical and individual properties of dusty star-forming galaxies. However, the identification of gravitational lenses is often time-intensive, involving the sifting of large volumes of imaging or spectroscopic data to find few candidates. We used early data from the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey to demonstrate that wide-area submillimeter surveys can simply and easily detect strong gravitational lensing events, with close to 100% efficiency.
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The Detection of a Population of Submillimeter-Bright, Strongly-Lensed Galaxies

(2010)

Authors:

Mattia Negrello, R Hopwood, G De Zotti, A Cooray, A Verma, J Bock, DT Frayer, MA Gurwell, A Omont, R Neri, H Dannerbauer, LL Leeuw, E Barton, J Cooke, S Kim, E da Cunha, G Rodighiero, P Cox, DG Bonfield, MJ Jarvis, S Serjeant, RJ Ivison, S Dye, I Aretxaga, DH Hughes, E Ibar, F Bertoldi, I Valtchanov, S Eales, L Dunne, SP Driver, R Auld, S Buttiglione, A Cava, CA Grady, DL Clements, A Dariush, J Fritz, D Hill, JB Hornbeck, L Kelvin, G Lagache, M Lopez-Caniego, J Gonzalez-Nuevo, S Maddox, E Pascale, M Pohlen, EE Rigby, A Robotham, C Simpson, DJB Smith, P Temi, MA Thompson, BE Woodgate, DG York, JE Aguirre, A Beelen, A Blain, AJ Baker, M Birkinshaw, R Blundell, CM Bradford, D Burgarella, L Danese, JS Dunlop, S Fleuren, J Glenn, AI Harris, J Kamenetzky, RE Lupu, RJ Maddalena, BF Madore, PR Maloney, H Matsuhara, MJ Michalowski, EJ Murphy, BJ Naylor, H Nguyen, C Popescu, S Rawlings, D Rigopoulou, D Scott, KS Scott, M Seibert, I Smail, RJ Tuffs, JD Vieira, PP van der Werf, J Zmuidzinas
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The WFC3 infrared spectroscopic parallel (WISP) survey

Astrophysical Journal 723:1 (2010) 104-115

Authors:

H Atek, M Malkan, P McCarthy, HI Teplitz, C Scarlata, B Siana, A Henry, JW Colbert, NR Ross, C Bridge, AJ Bunker, A Dressler, RAE Fosbury, C Martin, H Shim

Abstract:

We present the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey. WISP is obtaining slitless, near-infrared grism spectroscopy of ∼90 independent, high-latitude fields by observing in the pure-parallel mode with the Wide Field Camera Three on the Hubble Space Telescope for a total of ∼250 orbits. Spectra are obtained with the G102 (λ = 0.8-1.17 μm, R ∼ 210) and G141 grisms (λ = 1.11-1.67 μm, R ∼ 130), together with direct imaging in the J and H bands (F110W and F140W, respectively). In the present paper, we present the first results from 19 WISP fields, covering approximately 63 arcmin2. For typical exposure times (∼6400 s in G102 and ∼2700 s in G141), we reach 5σ detection limits for emission lines of f ∼ 5 × 10 -17 erg s-1 cm-2 for compact objects. Typical direct imaging 5σ limits are 26.3 and 26.1 mag. (AB) in F110W and F140W, respectively. Restricting ourselves to the lines measured with the highest confidence, we present a list of 328 emission lines, in 229 objects, in a redshift range 0.3 < z < 3. The single-line emitters are likely to be a mix of Hα and [O III]5007,4959 Å, with Hα predominating. The overall surface density of high-confidence emission-line objects in our sample is approximately 4 per arcmin2. These first fields show high equivalent width sources, active galactic nucleus, and post-starburst galaxies. The median observed star formation rate (SFR) of our Hα-selected sample is 4 M⊙ yr-1. At intermediate redshifts, we detect emission lines in galaxies as faint as H140 ∼ 25, or M R < - 19, and are sensitive to SFRs down to less than 1M ⊙ yr-1. The slitless grisms on WFC3 provide a unique opportunity to study the spectral properties of galaxies much fainter than L* at the peak of the galaxy assembly epoch. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society.
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