No Arabic abstract
We present reduced data and data products from the 3D-HST survey, a 248-orbit HST Treasury program. The survey obtained WFC3 G141 grism spectroscopy in four of the five CANDELS fields: AEGIS, COSMOS, GOODS-S, and UDS, along with WFC3 $H_{140}$ imaging, parallel ACS G800L spectroscopy, and parallel $I_{814}$ imaging. In a previous paper (Skelton et al. 2014) we presented photometric catalogs in these four fields and in GOODS-N, the fifth CANDELS field. Here we describe and present the WFC3 G141 spectroscopic data, again augmented with data from GO-1600 in GOODS-N. The data analysis is complicated by the fact that no slits are used: all objects in the WFC3 field are dispersed, and many spectra overlap. We developed software to automatically and optimally extract interlaced 2D and 1D spectra for all objects in the Skelton et al. (2014) photometric catalogs. The 2D spectra and the multi-band photometry were fit simultaneously to determine redshifts and emission line strengths, taking the morphology of the galaxies explicitly into account. The resulting catalog has 98,663 measured redshifts and line strengths down to $JH_{IR}leq 26$ and 22,548 with $JH_{IR}leq 24$, where we comfortably detect continuum emission. Of this sample 5,459 galaxies are at $z>1.5$ and 9,621 are at $0.7<z<1.5$, where H$alpha$ falls in the G141 wavelength coverage. Based on comparisons with ground-based spectroscopic redshifts, and on analyses of paired galaxies and repeat observations, the typical redshift error for $JH_{IR}leq 24$ galaxies in our catalog is $sigma_z approx 0.003 times (1+z)$, i.e., one native WFC3 pixel. The $3sigma$ limit for emission line fluxes of point sources is $1.5times10^{-17}$ ergs s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. We show various representations of the full dataset, as well as individual examples that highlight the range of spectra that we find in the survey.
We present grism spectra of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from 0.6-1.6 microns from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. These new infrared grism data augment previous optical Advanced Camera for Surveys G800L 0.6-0.95 micron grism data in GOODS-South from the PEARS program, extending the wavelength covereage well past the G800L red cutoff. The ERS grism field was observed at a depth of 2 orbits per grism, yielding spectra of hundreds of faint objects, a subset of which are presented here. ELGs are studied via the Ha, [OIII], and [OII] emission lines detected in the redshift ranges 0.2<z<1.4, 1.2<z<2.2 and 2.0<z<3.3 respectively in the G102 (0.8-1.1 microns; R~210) and G141 (1.1-1.6 microns; R~130) grisms. The higher spectral resolution afforded by the WFC3 grisms also reveals emission lines not detectable with the G800L grism (e.g., [SII] and [SIII] lines). From these relatively shallow observations, line luminosities, star-formation rates, and grism spectroscopic redshifts are determined for a total of 48 ELGs to m(AB)~25 mag. Seventeen GOODS-South galaxies that previously only had photometric redshifts now have new grism-spectroscopic redshifts, in some cases with large corrections to the photometric redshifts (Delta(z)~0.3-0.5). Additionally, one galaxy had no previously-measured redshift but now has a secure grism-spectroscopic redshift, for a total of 18 new GOODS-South spectroscopic redshifts. The faintest source in our sample has a magnitude m(AB)=26.9 mag. The ERS grism data also reflect the expected trend of lower specific star formation rates for the highest mass galaxies in the sample as a function of redshift, consistent with downsizing and discovered previously from large surveys. These results demonstrate the remarkable efficiency and capability of the WFC3 NIR grisms for measuring galaxy properties to faint magnitudes and redshifts to z>2.
The 3D-HST and CANDELS programs have provided WFC3 and ACS spectroscopy and photometry over ~900 square arcminutes in five fields: AEGIS, COSMOS, GOODS-North, GOODS-South, and the UKIDSS UDS field. All these fields have a wealth of publicly available imaging datasets in addition to the HST data, which makes it possible to construct the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of objects over a wide wavelength range. In this paper we describe a photometric analysis of the CANDELS and 3D-HST HST imaging and the ancillary imaging data at wavelengths 0.3um to 8um. Objects were selected in the WFC3 near-IR bands, and their SEDs were determined by carefully taking the effects of the point spread function in each observation into account. A total of 147 distinct imaging datasets were used in the analysis. The photometry is made available in the form of six catalogs: one for each field, as well as a master catalog containing all objects in the entire survey. We also provide derived data products: photometric redshifts, determined with the EAZY code, and stellar population parameters determined with the FAST code. We make all the imaging data that were used in the analysis available, including our reductions of the WFC3 imaging in all five fields. 3D-HST is a spectroscopic survey with the WFC3 and ACS grisms, and the photometric catalogs presented here constitute a necessary first step in the analysis of these grism data. All the data presented in this paper are available through the 3D-HST website.
We measure the Ly$alpha$ escape fraction of 935 [OIII]-emitting galaxies between $1.9 < z < 2.35$ by comparing stacked spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3s near-IR grism to corresponding stacks from the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiments Internal Data Release 2. By measuring the stacks H$beta$ to Ly$alpha$ ratios, we determine the Ly$alpha$ escape fraction as a function of stellar mass, star formation rate, internal reddening, size, and [OIII]/H$beta$ ratio. We show that the escape fraction of Ly$alpha$ correlates with a number of parameters, such as galaxy size, star formation rate, and nebular excitation. However, we also demonstrate that most of these relations are indirect, and the primary variables that control the escape of Ly$alpha$ are likely stellar mass and internal extinction. Overall, the escape of Ly$alpha$ declines from $gtrsim 18%$ in galaxies with $log M/M_{odot} lesssim 9$ to $lesssim 1%$ for systems with $log M/M_{odot} gtrsim 10$, with the samples mean escape fraction being $6.0^{+0.6%}_{-0.5%}$.
We present results of a search for emission-line galaxies in the Southern Fields of the Hubble Space Telescope PEARS (Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically) grism survey. The PEARS South Fields consist of five ACS pointings (including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field) with the G800L grism for a total of 120 orbits, revealing thousands of faint object spectra in the GOODS-South region of the sky. Emission-line galaxies (ELGs) are one subset of objects that are prevalent among the grism spectra. Using a 2-dimensional detection and extraction procedure, we find 320 emission lines orginating from 226 galaxy knots within 192 individual galaxies. Line identification results in 118 new grism-spectroscopic redshifts for galaxies in the GOODS-South Field. We measure emission line fluxes using standard Gaussian fitting techniques. At the resolution of the grism data, the H-beta and [OIII] doublet are blended. However, by fitting two Gaussian components to the H-beta and [OIII] features, we find that many of the PEARS ELGs have high [OIII]/H-beta ratios compared to other galaxy samples of comparable luminosities. The star-formation rates (SFRs) of the ELGs are presented, as well as a sample of distinct giant star-forming regions at z~0.1-0.5 across individual galaxies. We find that the radial distances of these HII regions in general reside near the galaxies optical continuum half-light radii, similar to those of giant HII regions in local galaxies.
We present a study of photometric redshift accuracy in the 3D-HST photometric catalogs, using 3D-HST grism redshifts to quantify and dissect trends in redshift accuracy for galaxies brighter than $H_{F140W}<24$ with an unprecedented and representative high-redshift galaxy sample. We find an average scatter of $0.0197pm0.0003(1+z)$ in the Skelton et al. (2014) photometric redshifts. Photometric redshift accuracy decreases with magnitude and redshift, but does not vary monotonically with color or stellar mass. The 1-$sigma$ scatter lies between $0.01-0.03$(1+z) for galaxies of all masses and colors below $z<2.5$ (for $H_{F140W}{<}24$), with the exception of a population of very red ($U-V > 2$), dusty star-forming galaxies for which the scatter increases to $sim0.1(1+z)$. Although the overall photometric redshift accuracy for quiescent galaxies is better than for star-forming galaxies, scatter depends more strongly on magnitude and redshift than on galaxy type. We verify these trends using the redshift distributions of close pairs and extend the analysis to fainter objects, where photometric redshift errors further increase to $sim0.046(1+z)$ at $H_{F160W}=26$. We demonstrate that photometric redshift accuracy is strongly filter-dependent and quantify the contribution of multiple filter combinations. We evaluate the widths of redshift probability distribution functions and find that error estimates are underestimated by a factor of $sim1.1-1.6$, but that uniformly broadening the distribution does not adequately account for fitting outliers. Finally, we suggest possible applications of these data in planning for current and future surveys and simulate photometric redshift performance in the LSST, DES, and combined DES and VHS surveys.