The Extended Groth Strip (EGS) is one of the premier fields for extragalactic deep surveys. Deep observations of the EGS with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope cover an area of 0.38 square degrees to a 50% completeness limit of 1.5 uJy at 3.6 um. The catalog comprises 57434 objects detected at 3.6 um, with 84%, 28%, and 24% also detected at 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 um. Number counts are consistent with results from other Spitzer surveys. Color distributions show that the EGS IRAC sources comprise a mixture of populations: low-redshift star-forming galaxies, quiescent galaxies dominated by stellar emission at a range of redshifts, and high redshift galaxies and AGN.
The quantitative morphological classification of distant galaxies is essential to the understanding of the evolution of galaxies over the history of the Universe. This paper presents Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 F606W and F814W photometric structural parameters for 7450 galaxies in the ``Groth Strip.'' These parameters are based on a two-dimensional bulge+disk surface brightness model and were obtained using an automated reduction and analysis pipeline described in detail here. A first set of fits was performed separately in each bandpass, and a second set of fits was performed simultaneously …
We report the progress on our analysis of two deep XMM observations in the areas of Hubble Deep Field-North and the Groth-Westphal Strip field. We present the source detection method, Monte-Carlo simulation on source detection, and our preliminary Log N -- Log S relations. Comparing these two fields and other fields in literature, we find up to 30% variations in number counts near our flux limits, which is most likely to be due to cosmic variance. This serves as a pilot study for a more systematic investigation. The nature of the X-ray sources in the Groth-Westphal field is also discussed in t…
We present the first results of the XMM-Newton observation on the Groth-Westphal Strip Field. The scheduled exposure time was 70 [ks]. We first analyzed about 50 [ks] of calibrated and cleaned EPIC-PN data, which were the only ones we could successfully process with an early version of the SAS software applicable to these observations. A total of about 110 sources have been detected in the central 10 arcmin of the PN field of view (FOV). A cross-correlation with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Medium Deep Survey (MDS) database shows a range of morphological properties of host galaxies of the …
Preliminary results are presented for a spectroscopic survey of the Groth Survey Strip (GSS), a 40 by 3.5 arcminute region of the sky imaged with HST, for which several hundred galaxy spectra have been obtained as part of the DEEP project (http://deep.ucolick.org). At least 6 broad-line AGNs (primarily Seyfert 1s) have been detected as well as several narrow-line Seyfert 2 candidates. The Seyfert galaxies detected in our survey have integrated absolute magnitudes extending to M(B)~-17.5, probing fainter magnitudes and higher redshifts than existing optical spectroscopic surveys. We also discus…
We explore the environment of z~1 AGN using a sample of 53 spectroscopically identified X-ray sources in the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey. We quantify the local density in the vicinity of an X-ray source by measuring the projected surface density of spectroscopically identified optical galaxies within a radius defined by the 3rd nearest neighbour. Our main result is that X-ray selected AGN at z~1 avoid underdense regions at the 99.89% confidence level. Moreover, although we find that the overall population shares the same (rich) environment with optical galaxies of …
OTELO (OSIRIS Tunable Emission Line Object Survey) will be carried out with the OSIRIS instrument at the 10 m GTC telescope at La Palma, and is aimed to be the deepest and richest survey of emission line objects to date. The deep narrow-band optical data from OSIRIS will be complemented by means of additional observations that include: (i) an exploratory broad-band survey that is already being carried out in the optical domain, (ii) FIR and sub-mm observations to be carried with the Herschel space telescope and the GTM, and (iii) deep X-Ray observations from XMM-Newton and Chandra.Here we pres…
Quasars representative of the populous faint end of the luminosity function are frustratingly dim with m~24 at intermediate redshift; moreover groundbased surveys for such faint QSOs suffer substantial morphological contamination by compact galaxies having similar colors. In order to establish a more reliable ultrafaint QSO sample, we used the APO 3.5-m telescope to take deep groundbased U-band CCD images in fields previously imaged in V,I with WFPC2/HST. Our approach hence combines multicolor photometry with the 0.1" spatial resolution of HST, to establish a morphological and multicolor surve…
We present an 850-micron map and list of candidate sources in a 70 arcmin^2 sub-area of the Groth Strip observed using SCUBA. We initially detect 7 candidate sources with signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) between 3.0 and 3.5 and 4 candidate sources with SNR > 3.5. Simulations suggest that on average in a map this size one expects 1.6 false positive sources for SNR > 3.5 and 4.5 for 3 < SNR < 3.5. Flux boosting in maps is a well known effect and we have developed a simple Bayesian prescription for estimating the unboosted flux distribution and used this method to determine the best flux estimates o…
We analyze the disk M dwarfs found in 31 new fields observed with the Wide Field Camera (WFC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) together with the sample previously analyzed from 22 WFC2 fields and 162 prerepair Planetary Camera (PC1) fields. The new observations, which include the 28 high-latitude fields comprising the Large Area Multi-Color Survey (``Groth Strip''), increase the total sample to 337 stars, and more than double the number of late M dwarfs (M_V>13.5) from 23 to 47. The mass function changes slope at M~0.6 Msun, from a near-Salpeter power-law index of α=-1.21 to α=0.44. In bot…
We describe AEGIS20 - a radio survey of the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) conducted with the Very Large Array (VLA) at 1.4GHz. The resulting catalog contains 1,123 emitters and is sensitive to ultraluminous starbursts to z<=1.3, well matched to the redshift range of the DEEP2 spectroscopic survey in this region. We use stacking techniques to explore the uJy-level emission from a variety of galaxy populations selected via conventional criteria - Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs), distant red galaxies (DRGs), UV-selected galaxies and extremely red objects (EROs) - determining their properties as a functi…
We have employed a reliable technique of classification of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) based on the fit of well-sampled spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with a complete set of AGN and starburst galaxy templates. We have compiled ultraviolet, optical, and infrared data for a sample of 116 AGN originally selected for their X-ray and mid-infrared emissions (96 with single detections and 20 with double optical counterparts). This is the most complete compilation of multiwavelength data for such a big sample of AGN in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS). Through these SEDs, we are able to obtain hi…
In this the first of a series of Letters, we present a description of the panchromatic data sets that have been acquired in the Extended Groth Strip region of the sky. Our survey, the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS), is intended to study the physical properties and evolutionary processes of galaxies at z ~ 1. It includes the following deep, wide-field imaging data sets: Chandra/ACIS X-ray (0.5 - 10 keV), GALEX ultraviolet (1200 - 2500 Angstrom), CFHT/MegaCam Legacy Survey optical (3600 - 9000 Angstroms), CFHT/CFH12K optical (4500 - 9000 Angstroms), Hubble Space…
We summarize the multiwavelength properties of X-ray sources detected in the 80 ks XMM-Newton observation of the Groth-Westphal Strip. We find 23 XMM-Newton sources within the WFPC2 fields. Ten spectroscopic redshifts are available from the DEEP and CFRS projects and 4 of these show broad Mg II emission (type 1 AGNs). Two of those without any broad lines, nevertheless, have [NeV] emission which is an unambiguous signature of AGN activity, one of which is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 and the other a type 2 AGN. We have made near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic observations using the Subaru OHS/CISCO sp…
We present U and B galaxy differential number counts from a field of ~900 arcmin^2, based on GOYA Survey imaging of the HST Groth-Westphal strip. Source detection efficiency corrections as a function of the object size have been applied. A variation of the half-exposure image method has been devised to identify and remove spurious detections. Achieved 50% detection efficiencies are 24.8 mag in U and 25.5 mag in B in the Vega system. Number count slopes are d log (N)/dm = 0.50 +/- 0.02 for B=21.0-24.5, and d log (N)/dm = 0.48 +/- 0.03 for U=21.0-24.0. Simple number count models are presented th…
We identify active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the Groth-Westphal Survey Strip (GSS) using the independent and complementary selection techniques of optical spectroscopy and photometric variability. We discuss the X-ray properties of these AGN using Chandra/XMM data for this region. From a sample of 576 galaxies with high quality spectra we identify 31 galaxies with AGN signatures. Seven of these have broad emission lines (Type 1 AGNs). We also identify 26 galaxies displaying nuclear variability in HST WFPC2 images of the GSS separated by ~7 years. The primary overlap of the two selected AGN samp…
We present the AEGIS-X survey, a series of deep Chandra ACIS-I observations of the Extended Groth Strip. The survey comprises pointings at 8 separate positions, each with nominal exposure 200ks, covering a total area of approximately 0.67 deg2 in a strip of length 2 degrees. We describe in detail an updated version of our data reduction and point source detection algorithms used to analyze these data. A total of 1325 band-merged sources have been found to a Poisson probability limit of 4e-6, with limiting fluxes of 5.3e-17 erg/cm2/s in the soft (0.5-2 keV) band and 3.8e-16 erg/cm2/s in the har…
The Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Probe (DEEP) is a multi-phase research program dedicated to the study of the formation and evolution of galaxies and of large scale structure in the distant Universe. This paper describes the first five-year phase, denoted DEEP1. A series of ten DEEP1 papers will discuss a range of scientific topics (e.g., the study of photometric and spectral properties of a general distant galaxy survey, the evolution observed in galaxy populations of varied morphologies). The observational basis for these studies is the Groth Survey Strip field, a 127 square arcminute regi…
A new 6-cm survey of almost 0.6 square degrees to a limit of 0.55-mJy/beam (10-sigma) finds 37 isolated radio sources and 7 radio source pairs (not necessarily physical companions). IRAC counterparts are identified for at least 92% of the radio sources within the area of deep IRAC coverage, which includes 31 isolated sources and 6 pairs. This contrasts with an identification rate of <74% to R<23.95 in visible light. Eight of the IRAC galaxies have power law spectral energy distributions, implying that the mid-infrared emission comes from a powerful AGN. The remaining 26 IRAC galaxies show stel…
We analyse colours of the nuclear regions of intermediate redshift disk galaxies, with the aim of obtaining empirical information of relative ages of bulges and disks at 0.1 < z < 1.3. We work with an apparent-diameter limited parent sample of 248 galaxies from the HST Groth Strip Survey. We apply a conservative criterion to identify bulges and potential precursors of present-day bulges based on nuclear surface brightness excess above the exponential profile of the outer parts. We measure bulge colours on wedge profiles opening on the semi-minor axis, and compare them to disk, and global galax…
We present a sample of over 50 luminous field bulges (including ellipticals) found in the Groth Strip Survey (GSS), with 0.73< z < 1.04 and with bulge magnitudes I <= 23. The exponential disk light is removed via decomposition of HST images using GIM2D. We find that 85% of these bulges are nearly as red as local E/S0's and have a shallow slope and a small color dispersion in the color-luminosity relation, suggesting roughly coeval formation. The surface brightnesses of these bulges are about 1 mag higher than local bulges. These results are explained adopting a "drizzling" scenario where a met…
We examine the infrared properties of 43 high redshift (0.1<z<1.2), infrared-luminous galaxies in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS), selected by a deep 70 micron survey with the Multiband Imaging Photometer on Spitzer (MIPS). In addition and with reference to starburst-type Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs), we derive a set of equations for estimating the total infrared luminosity (L_IR) in the range 8-1000 microns using photometry from at least one MIPS band. 42 out of 43 of our sources' optical/infrared SEDs (lambda_observed < 160 microns) are starburst-type, with only one object displaying …
Mid-infrared observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are important for understanding of the physical conditions around the central accretion engines. Chandra and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of a 300 arcmin^2 region in the Extended Groth Strip are used to select a sample of~150 AGN. The Spitzer instruments IRAC and MIPS detect 68-80% of these sources, which show a wide range of mid-infrared properties. About 40% of the sources have red power-law spectral energy distributions (f_nu ~ nu^alpha, alpha<0) in the 3.6-8 um IRAC bands. In these sources the central engine dominates the emission …
We discuss the optical and X-ray spectral properties of the sources detected in a single 200ks Chandra pointing in the Groth-Westphal Strip region. Optical identifications and spectroscopic redshifts are primarily from the DEEP2 survey. This is complemented with deeper (r~26mag) multi-waveband data (ugriz) from the Canada France Hawaii Legacy Survey to estimate photometric redshifts and to optically identify sources fainter than the DEEP2 magnitude limit (R(AB)~24.5mag). We focus our study on the 2-10keV selected sample comprising 97 sources to the limit ~8e-16erg/s/cm2, this being the most co…
We present the results of a 200 ks Chandra observation of part of the Groth Strip region, using the ACIS-I instrument. We present a relatively simple method for the detection of point-sources and calculation of limiting sensitivities, which we argue is at least as sensitive and more self-consistent than previous methods presented in the literature. 158 distinct X-ray sources are included in our point-source catalogue in the ACIS-I area. The number counts show a relative dearth of X-ray sources in this region. For example at a flux limit of 1E-15 (cgs) around 20 per cent more soft band sources …
We aim to define a sample of intermediate-z disk galaxies harbouring central bulges, and a complementary sample of disk galaxies without measurable bulges. We intend to provide colour profiles for both samples, as well as measurements of nuclear, disk, and global colours, which may be used to constrain the relative ages of bulges and disks. We select a diameter-limited sample of galaxies in images from the HST/WFPC2 Groth Strip survey, which is divided into two subsamples of higher and lower inclination to assess the role of dust in the measures quantities. Mergers are visually identified and …
Using spectroscopic data from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP) Groth Strip survey (DGSS), we analyze the gas-phase oxygen abundances for 56 emission-line field galaxies in the redshift range 0.26<z<0.82. Oxygen abundances relative to hydrogen range between 8.4<12+log(O/H)<9.0 with typical uncertainties of 0.17 dex. The 56 DGSS galaxies collectively exhibit a correlation between B-band luminosity and metallicity, i.e., an L-Z relation. Subsets of DGSS galaxies binned by redshift also exhibit L-Z correlations but with different zero points. Galaxies in the highest redshift bin (z…
Using spectroscopic data from the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP) Groth Strip survey (DGSS), we analyze the gas-phase oxygen abundances in the warm ionized medium for 64 emission-line field galaxies in the redshift range 0.26<z<0.82. Oxygen abundances relative to hydrogen range between 8.4<12+log(O/H)<9.0 with typical internal plus systematic measurement uncertainties of 0.17 dex. The 64 DGSS galaxies collectively exhibit an increase in metallicity with B-band luminosity. DGSS galaxies in the highest redshift bin (z=0.6-0.82) are brighter, on average, by ~1 mag at fixed metallicit…
We present the luminosity function and color-redshift relation of a magnitude-limited sample of 145 mostly red field E/S0 galaxies at z < 1 from the DEEP Groth Strip Survey (GSS). Most of the E/S0s (86%) form a red envelope in the redshift-color diagram, consistent with predictions of spectral synthesis models in which the dominant stellar population is formed at redshifts z > 1.5. Constructing a luminosity function of the full sample of 145 E/S0s, we find that there is about 1.1--1.9 magnitude brightening in rest-frame B band luminosity back to z = 0.8 from z=0, consistent with other studies.…
Fundamental Plane studies provide an excellent means of understanding the evolutionary history of early-type galaxies. Using the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck telescope, we obtained internal stellar kinematic information for 36 field galaxies in the Groth Strip--21 early-type and 15 disk galaxies. Their redshifts range from 0.3--1.0, with a median redshift 0.8. The slope of the relation shows no difference compared with the local slope. However, there is significant evolution in the zero-point offset; an offset due to evolution in magnitude requires a 2.4 magnitude luminosity…
The Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe (DEEP) is a series of spectroscopic surveys of faint galaxies, targeted at the properties and clustering of galaxies at redshifts z ~ 1. We present the redshift catalog of the DEEP 1 GSS pilot phase of this project, a Keck/LRIS survey in the HST/WFPC2 Groth Survey Strip. The redshift catalog and data, including reduced spectra, are publicly available through a Web-accessible database. The catalog contains 658 secure galaxy redshifts with a median z=0.65, and shows large-scale structure walls to z = 1. We find a bimodal distribution in the galaxy color-…
We present the quantitative rest-frame B morphological evolution and galaxy merger fractions at 0.2 < z < 1.2 as observed by the All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). We use the Gini coefficent and M_20 to identify major mergers and classify galaxy morphology for a volume-limited sample of 3009 galaxies brighter than 0.4 L_B^*, assuming pure luminosity evolution of 1.3 M_B per unit redshift. We find that the merger fraction remains roughly constant at 10 +/- 2% for 0.2 < z < 1.2. The fraction of E/S0/Sa increases from 21+/- 3% at z ~ 1.1 to 44 +/- 9% at z ~ 0.3, whi…
Weak lensing by large-scale structure provides a unique method to directly measure matter fluctuations in the universe, and has recently been detected from the ground. Here, we report the first detection of this `cosmic shear' based on space-based images. The detection was derived from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Survey Strip (or Groth Strip), a 4' by 42' set of 28 contiguous WFPC2 pointings with I<27. The small size of the HST Point-Spread Function (PSF) affords both a lower statistical noise, and a much weaker sensitivity to systematic effects, a crucial limiting factor of cosmic shear …
For some years now, we have been gathering optical spectra of DA white dwarfs in an effort to study and define the empirical ZZ Ceti instability strip. However, we have recently expanded this survey to include all the DA white dwarfs in the McCook & Sion catalog down to a limiting visual magnitude of V=17.5. We present here a spectroscopic analysis of over 1000 DA white dwarfs from this ongoing survey. We have several specific areas of interest most notably the hot DAO white dwarfs, the ZZ Ceti instability strip, and the DA+dM binary systems. Furthermore, we present a comparison of the ensembl…
In order to estimate the contribution of low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies to the local (z<0.1) galaxy number density, we performed an optical search for LSB candidates in a 15.5 deg^2 part of the region covered by the 65 deg^2 blind Arecibo HI Strip Survey (AHISS). Object detection and galaxy profile fitting were done with analytical algorithms. The detection efficiency and the selection effects were evaluated using large samples of artificial galaxies. Our final catalogue is diameter-limited and contains 306 galaxies with diameters >18" at the limiting surface brightness of mu_{B,lim}=25…
We present catalogs of QSO candidates selected using photometry from GALEX combined with SDSS in the Stripe 82 region and Blanco Cosmology Survey (BCS) near declination -55 degrees. The SDSS region contains ~700 objects with magnitude i < 20 and ~3600 objects with i < 21.5 in a ~60 square degree sky region, while the BCS region contains ~280 objects with magnitude i < 20 and ~2000 objects with i < 21.5 for a 11 square degree sky region that is being observed by three current microwave Sunyaev-Zeldovich surveys. Our QSO catalog is the first one in the BCS region. Deep GALEX exposures (~2000 sec…
Summary and discussion of some projects to use SCUBA to target sources selected at other wavebands, as well as to find new sub-mm galaxies in `blank fields': FIRBACK galaxies; Lyman break galaxies and `the Blob'; HDF flanking fields and the Groth Strip; survey of lensing cluster fields.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has already doubled the number of spectroscopically identified white dwarfs. However, there remains a wealth of white dwarfs in the McCook & Sion catalog for which little or nothing is known. We have thus undertaken a spectroscopic survey of all Northern hemisphere DA white dwarfs from this catalog in order to (1) confirm the spectroscopic classification, and (2) provide measurements of Teff and log g for each star. As part of this project, we have also secured spectroscopic data for all DA stars with high-speed photometric measurements available, in order to study…
Using the ground-based V and I photometry of a sample of stars from the Groth Strip, we obtain the first empirical calibration of the F606W and F814W Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 filters for 0.5<V-I<4.5. We present results in the form of corrections that need to be applied to the two synthetic calibrations currently in use. Both calibrations are found to require corrections to zero points and color-terms.
In this paper we present the first results of a deep spectroscopic survey of faint quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Southern Survey, a deep survey carried out by repeatedly imaging a 270 deg^2 area. Quasar candidates were selected from the deep data with good completeness over 0<z<5, and 2 to 3 magnitudes fainter than the SDSS main survey. Spectroscopic follow-up was carried out on the 6.5m MMT with Hectospec. The preliminary sample of this SDSS faint quasar survey (hereafter SFQS) covers ~ 3.9 deg^2, contains 414 quasars, and reaches g=22.5. The overall selection efficiency is ~…
Although the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has permitted the discovery of an increasing number of new ZZ Ceti stars, recent published analyses have shown that there are still many relatively bright (V < 17) ZZ Ceti stars waiting to be found. We will discuss the discovery of several such objects in addition to a number of DA stars in which we detected no photometric variations. These were uncovered as part of an ongoing spectroscopic survey of DA white dwarfs from the McCook & Sion Catalog. By determining the atmospheric parameters of a large sample of DA stars, we were able to identify objects plac…
We present a catalogue of morphologically classified bright galaxies in the north equatorial stripe (230 deg$^2$) derived from the Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Morphological classification is performed by visual inspection of images in the $g$ band. The catalogue contains 2253 galaxies complete to a magnitude limit of $r=16$ after Galactic extinction correction, selected from 2658 objects that are judged as extended in the photometric catalogue in the same magnitude limit. 1866 galaxies in our catalogue have spectroscopic information. A brief statistical analysis …
The FLAIR Shapley-Hydra (FLASH) redshift survey catalogue consists of 4613 galaxies brighter than $\bJ = 16.7$ (corrected for Galactic extinction) over a 605 sq. degree region of sky in the general direction of the Local Group motion. The survey region is an approximately $60\degr \times 10\degr$ strip spanning the sky from the Shapley Supercluster to the Hydra cluster, and contains 3141 galaxies with measured redshifts. Designed to explore the effect of the galaxy concentrations in this direction (in particular the Supergalactic plane and the Shapley Supercluster) upon the Local Group motion,…
(Abridged Abstract) We calculate the expected amplitude of the dipole and higher spherical harmonics in the angular distribution of radio galaxies. The median redshift of radio sources in existing catalogues is z=1, which allows us to study large scale structure on scales between those accessible to present optical and infrared surveys, and that of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The dipole is due to 2 effects which turn out to be of comparable magnitude: (i) our motion with respect to the CMB, and (ii) large scale structure, parameterised here by a family of Cold Dark Matter power-spec…
Radial velocities and central velocity dispersions are derived for 238 E/S0 galaxies from medium-resolution spectroscopy. New spectroscopic data have been obtained as part of a study of the Fundamental Plane distances and peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in three selected directions of the South Equatorial Strip, undertaken in order to investigate the reality of large-scale streaming motion; results of this study have been reported in Müller $et$ $al.$ (1998). The new APM South Equatorial Strip Catalog ($-17^{\circ}.5 < δ< +2^{\circ}.5$) was used to select the sample of field galaxies i…
The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) team presents broad-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs), from X-ray to radio wavelengths, for 71 galaxies spanning the redshift range 0.55-1.16 (<z>~0.7). Galaxies with secure redshifts were selected from a small (22 arcminute-square) sub-section of the Keck/DEIMOS galaxy redshift survey in the Extended Groth Strip field that has also been targeted for deep panchromatic imaging by Chandra (X-ray), GALEX (ultraviolet), Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (optical), Hubble Space Telescope (optical/near infrared), Palomar Obser…
We present an automated method to detect populations of groups in galaxy redshift catalogs. This method uses both analysis of the redshift distribution along lines of sight in fixed cells to detect elementary structures and a friend-of-friend algorithm to merge these elementary structures into physical structures. We apply this method to the SSRS2 galaxy redshift catalog. The groups detected with our method are similar to group catalogs detected with pure friend-of-friend algorithms. They have similar mass distribution, similar abundance versus redshift, similar 2-point correlation function an…
We present an optically-selected catalog of 1073 galaxy cluster and group candidates at 0.3<z<1. These candidates are drawn from the Las Campanas Distant Clusters Survey (LCDCS), a drift-scan imaging survey of a 130 square degree strip of the southern sky. To construct this catalog we utilize a novel detection process in which clusters are detected as positive surface brightness fluctuations in the background sky. This approach permits us to find clusters with significantly shallower data than other matched-filter methods that are based upon number counts of resolved galaxies. Selection criter…
We have used the MHW2 filter to obtain estimates of the flux densities at the WMAP frequencies of a complete sample of 2491 sources, mostly brighter than 500 mJy at 5 GHz, distributed over the whole sky excluding a strip around the Galactic equator (b < 5 degrees). After having detected 933 sources above the 3 sigma level in the MHW2 filtered maps - our New Extragalactic WMAP Point Source (NEWPS_3sigma) Catalogue - we are left with 381 sources above 5 sigma in at least one WMAP channel, 369 of which constitute our NEWPS_5sigma catalogue. It is remarkable to note that 98 (i.e. 26%) sources dete…
We investigate the evolution of the fractions of late type cluster galaxies as a function of redshift, using one of the largest, most uniform cluster samples available. The sample consists of 514 clusters of galaxies in the range 0.02<z<0.3 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Cut & Enhance galaxy cluster catalog. This catalog was created using a single automated cluster finding algorithm on uniform data from a single telescope, with accurate CCD photometry, thus, minimizing selection biases. We use four independent methods to analyze the evolution of the late type galaxy fraction. Specifically, …
Four large-area Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) experiments -- APEX-SZ, SPT, ACT, and Planck -- promise to detect clusters of galaxies through the distortion of Cosmic Microwave Background photons by hot (> 10^6 K) cluster gas (the SZ effect) over thousands of square degrees. A large observational follow-up effort to obtain redshifts for these SZ-detected clusters is under way. Given the large area covered by these surveys, most of the redshifts will be obtained via the photometric redshift (photo-z) technique. Here we demonstrate, in an application using ~3000 SDSS stripe 82 galaxies with r<20, how th…
The DEEP2 project will obtain redshifts for ~60,000 galaxies between z~0.7-1.5 in a comoving volume of 7 10^6 Mpc/h^3 for an LCDM universe. The survey will map four separate 2 by 0.5 degree strips of the sky. To study the expected clustering, we have constructed mock galaxy catalogs from the GIF Virgo Consortium simulations. We present two- and three-point correlation analyses of these mock galaxy catalogs to test how well we will measure these statistics in the presence of selection biases which will limit the surface density of galaxies which we can select for spectroscopy. We find that neit…
The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) is the first of a new generation of hemispheric imaging projects to extend the work of the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) by reaching three magnitudes deeper in YJHK imaging, to K=18.2 (5-sigma, Vega) over wide fields. Better complementing existing optical surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the resulting public imaging catalogues provide new photometry of rare object samples too faint to be reached previously. The first data release of UKIDSS has already surpassed 2MASS in terms of photons gathered, and using this new dataset we …