2010/11/01 by Joshua J. Adams, Guillermo A. Blanc, Gary J. Hill +29 · 162 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Emission spectrum #Equivalent width #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Integral field spectrograph #Photometric redshift #Physics #Quasar #Redshift #Redshift survey #Spectral line #Spectrograph #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0067-0049/192/1/5
published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 192(1), 5 (Institute of Physics) · 45 pages, 36 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJS
arxiv created 2010/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2010/12/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We present a catalog of emission-line galaxies selected solely by their emission-line fluxes using a wide-field integral field spectrograph. This work is partially motivated as a pilot survey for the upcoming Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment. We describe the observations, reductions, detections, redshift classifications, line fluxes, and counterpart information for 397 emission-line galaxies detected over 169 □' with a 3500–5800 Å bandpass under 5 Å full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) spectral resolution. The survey's best sensitivity for unresolved objects under photometric conditions is between 4 and 20 × 10 −17 erg s −1 cm −2 depending on the wavelength, and Lyα luminosities between 3 × 10 42 and 6 × 10 42 erg s −1 are detectable. This survey method complements narrowband and color-selection techniques in the search of high-redshift galaxies with its different selection properties and large volume probed. The four survey fields within the COSMOS, GOODS-N, MUNICS, and XMM-LSS areas are rich with existing, complementary data. We find 105 galaxies via their high-redshift Lyα emission at 1.9 < z < 3.8, and the majority of the remainder objects are low-redshift [O ii ]3727 emitters at z < 0.56. The classification between low- and high-redshift objects depends on rest-frame equivalent width (EW), as well as other indicators, where available. Based on matches to X-ray catalogs, the active galactic nuclei fraction among the Lyα emitters is 6%. We also analyze the survey's completeness and contamination properties through simulations. We find five high- z , highly significant, resolved objects with FWHM sizes >44 □' which appear to be extended Lyα nebulae. We also find three high- z objects with rest-frame Lyα EW above the level believed to be achievable with normal star formation, EW 0 >240 Å. Future papers will investigate the physical properties of this sample.