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Register a new userA Successful Broad-band Survey for Giant Lya Nebulae II: Spectroscopic Confirmation
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Authors
Moire K. M. Prescott
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Using a systematic broad-band search technique, we have carried out a survey for large Lya nebulae (or Lya blobs) at 2<z<3 within 8.5 square degrees of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes field, corresponding to a total survey comoving volume of ~10^8 h_70^-3 Mpc^3. Here, we present our spectroscopic observations of candidate giant Lya nebulae. Of 26 candidates targeted, 5 were confirmed to have Lya emission at 1.7<z<2.7, four of which were new discoveries. The confirmed Lya nebulae span a range of Lya equivalent widths, colors, sizes, and line ratios, and most show spatially-extended continuum emission. The remaining candidates did not reveal any strong emission lines, but instead exhibit featureless, diffuse, blue continuum spectra. Their nature remains mysterious, but we speculate that some of these might be Lya nebulae lying within the redshift desert (i.e., 1.2<z<1.6). Our spectroscopic follow-up confirms the power of using deep broad-band imaging to search for the bright end of the Lya nebula population across enormous comoving volumes.
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Giant Lya nebulae (or Lya blobs) are likely sites of ongoing massive galaxy formation, but the rarity of these powerful sources has made it difficult to form a coherent picture of their properties, ionization mechanisms, and space density. Systematic narrow-band Lya nebula surveys are ongoing, but the small redshift range covered and the observational expense limit the comoving volume that can be probed by even the largest of these surveys and pose a significant problem when searching for such rare sources. We have developed a systematic search technique designed to find large Lya nebulae at 2<z<3 within deep broad-band imaging and have carried out a survey of the 9.4 square degree NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes field. With a total survey comoving volume of ~10^8 h^-3_70 Mpc^3, this is the largest volume survey for Lya nebulae ever undertaken. In this first paper in the series, we present the details of the survey design and a systematically-selected sample of 79 candidates, which includes one previously discovered Lya nebula.
We report deep Keck narrow-band Lya images of the luminous z > 3 radio galaxies 4C 41.17, 4C 60.07, and B2 0902+34. The images show giant, 100-200 kpc scale emission line nebulae, centered on these galaxies, which exhibit a wealth of morphological structure, including extended low surface brightness emission in the outer regions, radially directed filaments, cone-shaped structures and (indirect) evidence for extended Lya absorption. We discuss these features within a general scenario where the nebular gas cools gravitationally in large Cold Dark Matter (CDM) halos, forming stars and multiple stellar systems. Merging of these ``building blocks triggers large scale starbursts, forming the stellar bulges of massive radio galaxy hosts, and feeds super-massive black holes which produce the powerful radio jets and lobes. The radio sources, starburst superwinds and AGN radiation then disrupt the accretion process limiting galaxy and black hole growth, and imprint the observed filamentary and cone-shaped structures of the Lya nebulae.
Galaxies had their most significant impact on the Universe when they assembled their first generations of stars. Energetic photons emitted by young, massive stars in primeval galaxies ionized the intergalactic medium surrounding their host galaxies, cleared sight-lines along which the light of the young galaxies could escape, and fundamentally altered the physical state of the intergalactic gas in the Universe continuously until the present day. Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, and of galaxies and quasars at the highest redshifts, suggest that the Universe was reionised through a complex process that was completed about a billion years after the Big Bang, by redshift z~6. Detecting ionizing Ly-alpha photons from increasingly distant galaxies places important constraints on the timing, location and nature of the sources responsible for reionisation. Here we report the detection of Ly-a photons emitted less than 600 million years after the Big Bang. UDFy-38135539 is at a redshift z=8.5549+-0.0002, which is greater than those of the previously known most distant objects, at z=8.2 and z=6.97. We find that this single source is unlikely to provide enough photons to ionize the volume necessary for the emission line to escape, requiring a significant contribution from other, probably fainter galaxies nearby.
We present a new suite of photometric and spectroscopic data for the faint Bootes II dwarf spheroidal galaxy candidate. Our deep photometry, obtained with the INT/WFC, suggests a distance of 46 kpc and a small half-light radius of 4.0 arcmin (56 pc), consistent with previous estimates. Follow-up spectroscopy obtained with the Gemini/GMOS instrument yielded radial velocities and metallicities. While the majority of our targets covers a broad range in velocities and metallicities, we find five stars which share very similar velocities and metallicities and which are all compatible with the colors and magnitudes of the galaxys likely red giant branch. We interpret these as a spectroscopic detection of the Bootes II system. These stars have a mean velocity of -117 km/s, a velocity dispersion of (10.5+-7.4) km/s and a mean [Fe/H] of -1.79 dex, with a dispersion of 0.14 dex. At this metallicity, Boo II is not consistent with the stellar-mass-metallicity relation for the more luminous dwarf galaxies. Coupled with our distance estimate, its high negative systemic velocity rules out any physical connection with its projected neighbor, the Bootes I dwarf spheroidal, which has a velocity of ~+100 km/s. The velocity and distance of Bootes II coincide with those of the leading arm of Sagittarius, which passes through this region of the sky, so that it is possible that Bootes II may be a stellar system associated with the Sagittarius stream. Finally, we note that the properties of Bootes II are consistent with being the surviving remnant of a previously larger and more luminous dSph galaxy.
We study 203 (of 442) Swift AGN and Cluster Survey extended X-ray sources located in the SDSS DR8 footprint to search for galaxy over-densities in three dimensional space using SDSS galaxy photometric redshifts and positions near the Swift cluster candidates. We find 104 Swift clusters with a >3sigma galaxy over-density. The remaining targets are potentially located at higher redshifts and require deeper optical follow-up observations for confirmation as galaxy clusters. We present a series of cluster properties including the redshift, BCG magnitude, BCG-to-X-ray center offset, optical richness, and X-ray luminosity. We also detect red sequences in ~85% of the 104 confirmed clusters. The X-ray luminosity and optical richness for the SDSS confirmed Swift clusters are correlated and follow previously established relations. The distribution of the separations between the X-ray centroids and the most likely BCG is also consistent with expectation. We compare the observed redshift distribution of the sample with a theoretical model, and find that our sample is complete for z <~ 0.3 and is still 80% complete up to z ~= 0.4, consistent with the SDSS survey depth. These analysis results suggest that our Swift cluster selection algorithm has yielded a statistically well-defined cluster sample for further studying cluster evolution and cosmology. We also match our SDSS confirmed Swift clusters to existing cluster catalogs, and find 42, 23 and 1 matches in optical, X-ray and SZ catalogs, respectively, so the majority of these clusters are new detections.
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