Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South with the Infrared Space Observatory - I. Observations, data reduction and mid-infrared source counts

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 332:3 (2002) 536-548

Authors:

S Oliver, RG Mann, R Carballo, A Franceschini, M Rowan-Robinson, M Kontizas, A Dapergolas, E Kontizas, A Verma, D Elbaz, GL Granato, L Silva, D Rigopoulou, JI Gonzalez-Serrano, S Serjeant, A Efstathiou, PP Van Der Werf

Abstract:

We present results from a deep mid-infrared survey of the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) region performed at 6.7 and 15 μm with the ISOCAM instrument on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). The final map in each band was constructed by the co-addition of four independent rasters, registered using bright sources securely detected in all rasters, with the absolute astrometry being defined by a radio source detected at both 6.7 and 15 μm. We sought detections of bright sources in a circular region of radius 2.5 arcmin at the centre of each map, in a manner that simulations indicated would produce highly reliable and complete source catalogues using simple selection criteria. Merging source lists in the two bands yielded a catalogue of 35 distinct sources, which we calibrated photometrically using photospheric models of late-type stars detected in our data. We present extragalactic source count results in both bands, and discuss the constraints that they impose on models of galaxy evolution, given the volume of space sampled by this galaxy population.

Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South with the Infrared Space Observatory - II. Associations and star formation rates

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 332:3 (2002) 549-574

Authors:

RG Mann, S Oliver, R Carballo, A Franceschini, M Rowan-Robinson, AF Heavens, M Kontizas, D Elbaz, A Dapergolas, E Kontizas, GL Granato, L Silva, D Rigopoulou, JI Gonzalez-Serrano, A Verma, S Serjeant, A Efstathiou, PP Van Der Werf

Abstract:

We present results from a deep mid-infrared survey of the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) region performed at 6.7 and 15 μm with the ISOCAM instrument on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). We find reliable optical/near-infrared associations for 32 of the 35 sources detected in this field by Oliver et al. (Paper I): eight of them are identified as stars, one is definitely an active galactic nucleus (AGN), a second seems likely to be an AGN too, while the remaining 22 appear to be normal spiral or starburst galaxies. Using model spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of similar galaxies, we compare methods for estimating the star formation rates (SFRs) in these objects, finding that an estimator based on integrated (3-1000 μm) infrared luminosity reproduces the model SFRs best. Applying this estimator to model fits to the SEDs of our 22 spiral and starburst galaxies, we find that they are forming stars at rates of ∼ 1-100M⊙yr-1, with a median value of ∼40M⊙yr-1, assuming an Einstein-de Sitter universe with a Hubble constant of 50km s-1 Mpc-1, and star formation taking place according to a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) across the mass range 0.1-100 M⊙. We split the redshift range 0.0 ≤ z ≤ 0.6 into two equal-volume bins to compute raw estimates of the star formation rate density, ṗ*, contributed by these sources, assuming the same cosmology and IMF as above and computing errors based on estimated uncertainties in the SFRs of individual galaxies. We compare these results with other estimates of ṗ* made with the same assumptions, showing them to be consistent with the results of Flores et al. from their ISO survey of the CFRS 1415+52 field. However, the relatively small volume of our survey means that our ṗ* estimates suffer from a large sampling variance, implying that our results, by themselves, do not place tight constraints on the global mean star formation rate density.

Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations of hyperluminous infrared galaxies

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press 329:3 (2002) 605-619

Authors:

D Farrah, Aprajita Verma, S Oliver, M Rowan-Robinson, R McMahon

Abstract:

We present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 I-band imaging for a sample of nine hyperluminous infrared galaxies (HLIRGs) spanning a redshift range 0.45 < z < 1.34. Three of the sample have morphologies showing evidence for interactions and six are quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). Host galaxies in the QSOs are detected reliably out to z ∼ 0.8. The detected QSO host galaxies have an elliptical morphology with scalelengths spanning 6.5 < re (kpc) < 88 and absolute k-corrected magnitudes spanning −24.5 < MI < −25.2. There is no clear correlation between the infrared (IR) power source and the optical morphology. None of the sources in the sample, including F15307+3252, shows any evidence for gravitational lensing. We infer that the IR luminosities are thus real. Based on these results, and previous studies of HLIRGs, we conclude that this class of object is broadly consistent with being a simple extrapolation of the ULIRG population to higher luminosities; ULIRGs being mainly violently interacting systems powered by starbursts and/or active galactic nuclei. Only a small number of sources, the infrared luminosities of which exceed 1013 L⊙, are intrinsically less luminous objects that have been boosted by gravitational lensing.

Deep optical and near infrared observations in ELAIS areas

European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP (2001) 421-424

Authors:

EA González-Solares, I Pérez-Fournon, R McMahon, C Sabbey, O Almaini, J Manners, C Willott, F Cabrera-Guerra, P Ciliegi, A Lawrence, B Mann, S Oliver, M Rowan-Robinson, S Serjeant, A Verma

Abstract:

We present deep optical and near infrared imaging over half square degree of sky in the centres of the ELAIS regions N1 and N2 and coincident with deep XMM/Chandra observations. The data have been obtained with the Wide Field Camera (WFC) and the Cambridge InfraRed Survey Instrument (CIRSI) both at the Isaac Newton Telescope (Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Islands). Limiting magnitudes achieved are g'=26.7, r'=26.2, i'=25.0 and H=20.2 (3σ). These data have been used to identify the faint optical counterparts of the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), radio and X-ray sources in these areas.

MID-FIR properties of ELAIS sources

European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP (2001) 147-150

Authors:

I Márquez, J Masegosa, T Morel, A Efstathiou, A Verma, P Vaisanen, D Alexander, P Héraudeau, C Surace, I Pérez-Fournón, F Cabrera-Guerra, JI González-Serrano, EA González-Solares, S Serjeant, S Oliver, M Rowan-Robinson

Abstract:

We present the properties of all the galaxies detected by ISO at 7, 15 and 90μm in ELAIS northern fields. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of those 20 galaxies with IRAS detections can generally be well fitted by a predominant cirrus component plus a modest starburst contribution. Follow-up spectroscopy has shown that all the objects are emission-line galaxies but without a very intense star formation event. Most of the galaxies analyzed by means of optical R band photometry result to host an important exponential disk component, in good agreement with the SED IR modelling. We note that galaxies with morphological signs of perturbations seem to show slightly higher f15/f6.7 ratios, indicating that star formation could be more important in them. One of the objects is a broad-line, radio-quiet quasar at z=1.099; its spectral energy distribution indicates that it is a hyperluminous infrared galaxy (HLIG), the first HLIG detected in the ELAIS areas.