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 similar U-B and M_B, there is also tentative evidence (96%) that AGN with blue colors (U-B<1) reside in denser environments compared to optical galaxies. We argue that the results above are a consequence of the whereabouts of massive galaxies, capable of hosting supermassive black holes at their centers, with available cold gas reservoirs, the fuel for AGN activity. At z~1 an increasing fraction of such systems are found in dense regions.

© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present spatially resolved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 870 μm dust continuum maps of six massive, compact, dusty star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 2.5. These galaxies are selected for their small rest-frame optical sizes (reF160W ∼ 1.6 kpc) and high stellar mass densities that suggest that they are direct progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 2. The deep observations yield high far-infrared (FIR) luminosities of LIR = 1012.3-12.8 L⊙ and star formation rates (SFRs) of SFR = 200-700 M o yr-1, consistent with those of typical star-forming "main sequence" galaxies. The high spatial resolution (FWHM ∼ 0.″12-0.″18) ALMA and Hubble Space Telescope photometry are combined to construct deconvolved, mean radial profiles of their stellar mass and (UV+IR) SFR. We find that the dusty, nuclear IR-SFR overwhelmingly dominates the bolometric SFR up to r ∼ 5 kpc, by a factor of over 100× from the unobscured UV-SFR. Furthermore, the effective radius of the mean SFR profile (re,SFR ∼ 1 kpc) is ∼30% smaller than that of the stellar mass profile. The implied structural evolution, if such nuclear starburst last for the estimated gas depletion time of Δt = ± 100 Myr, is a 4× increase of the stellar mass density within the central 1 kpc and a 1.6× decrease of the half-mass-radius. This structural evolution fully supports dissipation-driven, formation scenarios in which strong nuclear starbursts transform larger, star-forming progenitors into compact quiescent galaxies.

© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present the results of deep Chandra imaging of the central region of the Extended Groth Strip, the AEGIS-X Deep (AEGIS-XD) survey. When combined with previous Chandra observations of a wider area of the strip, AEGIS-X Wide (AEGIS-XW), these provide data to a nominal exposure depth of 800 ks in the three central ACIS-I fields, a region of approximately 0.29 deg2. This is currently the third deepest X-ray survey in existence; a factor shallower than the Chandra Deep Fields (CDFs), but over an area ∼3 times greater than each CDF. We present a catalog of 937 point sources detected in the deep Chandra observations, along with identifications of our X-ray sources from deep ground-based, Spitzer, GALEX, and Hubble Space Telescope imaging. Using a likelihood ratio analysis, we associate multiband counterparts for 929/937 of our X-ray sources, with an estimated 95% reliability, making the identification completeness approximately 94% in a statistical sense. Reliable spectroscopic redshifts for 353 of our X-ray sources are available predominantly from Keck (DEEP2/3) and MMT Hectospec, so the current spectroscopic completeness is ∼38%. For the remainder of the X-ray sources, we compute photometric redshifts based on multiband photometry in up to 35 bands from the UV to mid-IR. Particular attention is given to the fact that the vast majority the X-ray sources are active galactic nuclei and require hybrid templates. Our photometric redshifts have mean accuracy of and an outlier fraction of approximately 5%, reaching with less than 4% outliers in the area covered by CANDELS . The X-ray, multiwavelength photometry, and redshift catalogs are made publicly available.

ABSTRACT We present catalogues of calibrated photometry and spectroscopic redshifts in the Extended Groth Strip, intended for studies of photometric redshifts (photo-z’s). The data includes ugriz photometry from Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) and Y-band photometry from the Subaru Suprime camera, as well as spectroscopic redshifts from the DEEP2, DEEP3, and 3D-HST surveys. These catalogues incorporate corrections to produce effectively matched-aperture photometry across all bands, based upon object size information available in the catalogue and Moffat profile point spread function fits. We test this catalogue with a simple machine learning-based photometric redshift algorithm based upon Random Forest regression, and find that the corrected aperture photometry leads to significant improvement in photo-z accuracy compared to the original SExtractor catalogues from CFHTLS and Subaru. The deep ugrizY photometry and spectroscopic redshifts are well suited for empirical tests of photometric redshift algorithms for LSST. The resulting catalogues are publicly available at http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/36064/. We include a basic summary of the strategy of the DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey to accompany the recent public release of DEEP3 data.

© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. We present the stellar mass (M∗)gas-phase metallicity relation (MZR) and its scatter at intermediate redshifts (0.5 ≤ z ≤ 0.7) for 1381 field galaxies collected from deep spectroscopic surveys. The star formation rate (SFR) and color at a given M∗ of this magnitude-limited (R ≳ 24 AB) sample are representative of normal starforming galaxies. For masses below 109 Mo, our sample of 237 galaxies is ∼10 times larger than those in previous studies beyond the local universe. This huge gain in sample size enables superior constraints on the MZR and its scatter in the low-mass regime. We find a power-law MZR at 108 Mo < M∗ < 1011 Mo: 12 + log (O/H) = (5.83 ± 0.19) +(0.30 ± 0.02) log (M∗/Mo). At 109 Mo < M∗ < 1010.5 Mo, our MZR shows agreement with others measured at similar redshifts in the literature. Our power-law slope is, however, shallower than the extrapolation of the MZRs of others to masses below 109 Mo. The SFR dependence of the MZR in our sample is weaker than that found for local galaxies (known as the fundamental metallicity relation). Compared to a variety of theoretical models, the slope of our MZR for low-mass galaxies agrees well with predictions incorporating supernova energy-driven winds. Being robust against currently uncertain metallicity calibrations, the scatter of the MZR serves as a powerful diagnostic of the stochastic history of gas accretion, gas recycling, and star formation of low-mass galaxies. Our major result is that the scatter of our MZR increases as Mo decreases. Our result implies that either the scatter of the baryonic accretion rate (δṀ? ) or the scatter of the M∗-Mhalo relation (δSHMR) increases as M∗ decreases. Moreover, our measure of scatter at z = 0.7 appears consistent with that found for local galaxies. This lack of redshift evolution constrains models of galaxy evolution to have both δṀ and δSHMR remain unchanged from z = 0.7 to z = 0.

We describe the design and data analysis of the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, the densest and largest high-precision redshift survey of galaxies at z ∼ 1 completed to date. The survey was designed to conduct a comprehensive census of massive galaxies, their properties, environments, and large-scale structure down to absolute magnitude MB = -20 at z ∼ 1 via ∼90 nights of observation on the Keck telescope. The survey covers an area of 2.8 deg2 divided into four separate fields observed to a limiting apparent magnitude of RAB = 24.1. Objects with z ≲ 0.7 are readily identifiable using BRI photometry and rejected in three of the four DEEP2 fields, allowing galaxies with z > 0.7 to be targeted ∼2.5 times more efficiently than in a purely magnitude-limited sample. Approximately 60% of eligible targets are chosen for spectroscopy, yielding nearly 53,000 spectra and more than 38,000 reliable redshift measurements. Most of the targets that fail to yield secure redshifts are blue objects that lie beyond z ∼ 1.45, where the [O II] 3727 Å doublet lies in the infrared. The DEIMOS 1200 line mm-1 grating used for the survey delivers high spectral resolution (R ∼ 6000), accurate and secure redshifts, and unique internal kinematic information. Extensive ancillary data are available in the DEEP2 fields, particularly in the Extended Groth Strip, which has evolved into one of the richest multiwavelength regions on the sky. This paper is intended as a handbook for users of the DEEP2 Data Release 4, which includes all DEEP2 spectra and redshifts, as well as for the DEEP2 DEIMOS data reduction pipelines. Extensive details are provided on object selection, mask design, biases in target selection and redshift measurements, the spec2d two-dimensional data-reduction pipeline, the spec1d automated redshift pipeline, and the zspec visual redshift verification process, along with examples of instrumental signatures or other artifacts that in some cases remain after data reduction. Redshift errors and catastrophic failure rates are assessed through more than 2000 objects with duplicate observations. Sky subtraction is essentially photon-limited even under bright OH sky lines; we describe the strategies that permitted this, based on high image stability, accurate wavelength solutions, and powerful B-spline modeling methods. We also investigate the impact of targets that appear to be single objects in ground-based targeting imaging but prove to be composite in Hubble Space Telescope data; they constitute several percent of targets at z ∼ 1, approaching ∼5%-10% at z > 1.5. Summary data are given that demonstrate the superiority of DEEP2 over other deep high-precision redshift surveys at z ∼ 1 in terms of redshift accuracy, sample number density, and amount of spectral information. We also provide an overview of the scientific highlights of the DEEP2 survey thus far. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) was a multi-cycle treasury program on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) that surveyed a total area of ∼0.25 deg2 with ∼900 HST orbits spread across five fields over three years. Within these survey images we discovered 65 supernovae (SNe) of all types, out to z ∼ 2.5. We classify ∼24 of these as Type Ia SNe (SNe Ia) based on host galaxy redshifts and SN photometry (supplemented by grism spectroscopy of six SNe). Here we present a measurement of the volumetric SN Ia rate as a function of redshift, reaching for the first time beyond z = 2 and putting new constraints on SN Ia progenitor models. Our highest redshift bin includes detections of SNe that exploded when the universe was only ∼3 Gyr old and near the peak of the cosmic star formation history. This gives the CANDELS high redshift sample unique leverage for evaluating the fraction of SNe Ia that explode promptly after formation (<500 Myr). Combining the CANDELS rates with all available SN Ia rate measurements in the literature we find that this prompt SN Ia fraction is , consistent with a delay time distribution that follows a simple t -1 power law for all times t > 40 Myr. However, mild tension is apparent between ground-based low-z surveys and space-based high-z surveys. In both CANDELS and the sister HST program CLASH (Cluster Lensing And Supernova Survey with Hubble), we find a low rate of SNe Ia at z > 1. This could be a hint that prompt progenitors are in fact relatively rare, accounting for only 20% of all SN Ia explosions - though further analysis and larger samples will be needed to examine that suggestion. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.