No Arabic abstract
We derive direct measurement gas-phase metallicities of $7.4 < 12 + log(O/H) < 8.4$ for 14 low-mass Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) at $0.3 < z < 0.8$ identified in the Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS). We use deep slitless G102 grism spectroscopy of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), dispersing light from all objects in the field at wavelengths between 0.85 and 1.15 microns. We run an automatic search routine on these spectra to robustly identify 71 emission line sources, using archival data from VLT/MUSE to measure additional lines and confirm redshifts. We identify 14 objects with $0.3 < z < 0.8$ with measurable O[III]$lambda$4363 AA emission lines in matching VLT/MUSE spectra. For these galaxies, we derive direct electron-temperature gas-phase metallicities with a range of $7.4 < 12 + log(O/H) < 8.4$. With matching stellar masses in the range of $10^{7.9} M_{odot} < M_{star} < 10^{10.4} M_{odot}$, we construct a mass-metallicity (MZ) relation and find that the relation is offset to lower metallicities compared to metallicities derived from alternative methods (e.g.,$R_{23}$, O3N2, N2O2) and continuum selected samples. Using star formation rates (SFR) derived from the $Halpha$ emission line, we calculate our galaxies position on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation (FMR), where we also find an offset toward lower metallicities. This demonstrates that this emission-line-selected sample probes objects of low stellar masses but even lower metallicities than many comparable surveys. We detect a trend suggesting galaxies with higher Specific Star Formation (SSFR) are more likely to have lower metallicity. This could be due to cold accretion of metal-poor gas that drives star formation, or could be because outflows of metal-rich stellar winds and SNe ejecta are more common in galaxies with higher SSFR.
The Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS) is a deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3/IR (Wide Field Camera 3 Infrared) slitless spectroscopic survey of four deep fields. Two fields are located in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-North (GOODS-N) area and two fields are located in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) area. One of the southern fields selected is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Each of these four fields were observed using the WFC3/G102 grism (0.8$mu m$-1.15$mu m$ continuous coverage) with a total exposure time of 40 orbits (~ 100 kilo-seconds) per field. This reaches a 3 sigma continuum depth of ~26 AB magnitudes and probes emission lines to $approx 10^{-17} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2}$. This paper details the four FIGS fields and the overall observational strategy of the project. A detailed description of the Simulation Based Extraction (SBE) method used to extract and combine over 10000 spectra of over 2000 distinct sources brighter than m_F105W=26.5 mag is provided. High fidelity simulations of the observations is shown to significantly improve the background subtraction process, the spectral contamination estimates, and the final flux calibration. This allows for the combination of multiple spectra to produce a final high quality, deep, 1D-spectra for each object in the survey.
We present the results from the application of a two-dimensional emission line detection method, EMission-line two-Dimensional (EM2D), to the near-infrared G102 grism observations obtained with the Wide-Field Camera 3 (WFC3) as part of the Cycle 22 {em Hubble Space Telescope} Treasury Program: the Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS). Using the EM2D method, we have assembled a catalog of emission line galaxies (ELGs) with resolved star formation from each of the four FIGS fields. Not only can one better assess the global properties of ELGs, but the EM2D method allows for the analysis and an improved study of the individual emission-line region {it within} each galaxy. This paper includes a description of the methodology, advantages, and the first results of the EM2D method applied to ELGs in FIGS. The advantage of 2D emission line measurements includes significant improvement of galaxy redshift measurements, approaching the level of accuracy seen in high-spectral-resolution data, but with greater efficiency; and the ability to identify and measure the properties of multiple sites of star-formation and over scales of $sim$ 1 kpc within individual galaxies out to z $sim$ 4. The EM2D method also significantly improves the reliability of high-redshift ($zsim7$) Lyman-$alpha$ detections. Coupled with the wide field of view and high efficiency of space-based grism observations, EM2D provides a noteworthy improvement on the physical parameters that can be extracted from grism observations.
We improve the accuracy of photometric redshifts by including low-resolution spectral data from the G102 grism on the Hubble Space Telescope, which assists in redshift determination by further constraining the shape of the broadband Spectral Energy Disribution (SED) and identifying spectral features. The photometry used in the redshift fits includes near-IR photometry from FIGS+CANDELS, as well as optical data from ground-based surveys and HST ACS, and mid-IR data from Spitzer. We calculated the redshifts through the comparison of measured photometry with template galaxy models, using the EAZY photometric redshift code. For objects with F105W $< 26.5$ AB mag with a redshift range of $0 < z < 6$, we find a typical error of $Delta z = 0.03 * (1+z)$ for the purely photometric redshifts; with the addition of FIGS spectra, these become $Delta z = 0.02 * (1+z)$, an improvement of 50%. Addition of grism data also reduces the outlier rate from 8% to 7% across all fields. With the more-accurate spectrophotometric redshifts (SPZs), we searched the FIGS fields for galaxy overdensities. We identified 24 overdensities across the 4 fields. The strongest overdensity, matching a spectroscopically identified cluster at $z=0.85$, has 28 potential member galaxies, of which 8 have previous spectroscopic confirmation, and features a corresponding X-ray signal. Another corresponding to a cluster at $z=1.84$ has 22 members, 18 of which are spectroscopically confirmed. Additionally, we find 4 overdensities that are detected at an equal or higher significance in at least one metric to the two confirmed clusters.
Galaxies at high redshifts provide a valuable tool to study cosmic dawn, and therefore it is crucial to reliably identify these galaxies. Here, we present an unambiguous and first simultaneous detection of both the Lyman-alpha emission and the Lyman break from a z = 7.512+/- 0.004 galaxy, observed in the Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS). These spectra, taken with G102 grism on Hubble Space Telescope (HST), show a significant emission line detection (6 sigma) in multiple observational position angles (PA), with total integrated Ly{alpha} line flux of 1.06+/- 0.12 e10-17erg s-1cm-2. The line flux is nearly a factor of four higher than the previous MOSFIRE spectroscopic observations of faint Ly{alpha} emission at {lambda} = 1.0347{mu}m, yielding z = 7.5078+/- 0.0004. This is consistent with other recent observations implying that ground-based near-infrared spectroscopy underestimates total emission line fluxes, and if confirmed, can have strong implications for reionization studies that are based on ground-based Lyman-{alpha} measurements. A 4-{sigma} detection of the NV line in one PA also suggests a weak Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), potentially making this source the highest-redshift AGN yet found. Thus, this observation from the Hubble Space Telescope clearly demonstrates the sensitivity of the FIGS survey, and the capability of grism spectroscopy to study the epoch of reionization.
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.