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Register a new userThe Unusual Infrared Object HDF-N J123656.3+621322
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We describe an object in the Hubble Deep Field North with very unusual near-infrared properties. It is readily visible in Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS images at 1.6um and from the ground at 2.2um, but is undetected (with signal-to-noise <~ 2) in very deep WFPC2 and NICMOS data from 0.3 to 1.1um. The f_nu flux density drops by a factor >~ 8.3 (97.7% confidence) from 1.6 to 1.1um. The object is compact but may be slightly resolved in the NICMOS 1.6um image. In a low-resolution, near-infrared spectrogram, we find a possible emission line at 1.643um, but a reobservation at higher spectral resolution failed to confirm the line, leaving its reality in doubt. We consider various hypotheses for the nature of this object. Its colors are unlike those of known galactic stars, except perhaps the most extreme carbon stars or Mira variables with thick circumstellar dust shells. It does not appear to be possible to explain its spectral energy distribution as that of a normal galaxy at any redshift without additional opacity from either dust or intergalactic neutral hydrogen. The colors can be matched by those of a dusty galaxy at z >~ 2, by a maximally old elliptical galaxy at z >~ 3 (perhaps with some additional reddening), or by an object at z >~ 10 whose optical and 1.1um light have been suppressed by the intergalactic medium. Under the latter hypothesis, if the luminosity results from stars and not an AGN, the object would resemble a classical, unobscured protogalaxy, with a star formation rate >~ 100 M_sun/yr. Such UV-bright objects are evidently rare at 2 < z < 12.5, however, with a space density several hundred times lower than that of present-day L* galaxies.
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We have developed a Monte Carlo method to compute the luminosity function of galaxies, based on photometric redshifts, which takes into account the non-gaussianity of the probability functions, and the presence of degenerate solutions in redshift. In this paper we describe the method and the mock tests performed to check its reliability. The NIR luminosity functions and the redshift distributions are determined for near infrared subsamples on the HDF-N and HDF-S. The results on the evolution of the NIR LF, the stellar mass function, and the luminosity density, are presented and discussed in view of the implications for the galaxy formation models. The main results are the lack of substantial evolution of the bright end of the NIR LF and the absence of decline of the luminosity density up to a redshift z ~ 2, implying that most of the stellar population in massive galaxies was already in place at such redshift.
We present recent and ongoing results from extremely deep 18 day MERLIN + VLA 1.4GHz observations (rms: 3.3microJy/bm) of an 8.5-by-8.5 arcminute field centred upon the Hubble Deep Field North. This area of sky has been the subject of some of the deepest observations ever made over a wide range of frequencies, from X-rays to the radio. The results presented here use our deep, sub-arcsecond radio imaging of this field to characterise the radio structures of the several hundred GOODS Spitzer MIR sources in this field. These MIR sources primarily trace the luminous starburst sources. A significant proportion of the MIR sources are detected and resolved by our radio observations, allowing these observations to trace the IR/Radio correlation for galaxies over ~7 orders of magnitude, extending it to ever lower luminosities.
IC 2144 is a small reflection nebula located in the zone of avoidance near the Galactic anticenter. It has been investigated here largely on the basis of Keck/HIRES optical spectroscopy (R ~ 48,000) and a SpeX spectrogram in the near-IR (R = 2000) obtained at the NASA IRTF. The only star in the nebula that is obvious in the optical or near-IR is the peculiar emission-line object MWC 778 (V = 12.8), which resembles a T Tauri star in some respects. What appear to be F- or G-type absorption features are detectable in its optical region under the very complex emission line spectrum; their radial velocity agrees with the CO velocity of the larger cloud in which IC 2144 is embedded. There are significant differences between the spectrum of the brightest area of the nebula and of MWC 778, the presumed illuminator, an issue discussed in some detail. The distance of IC 2144 is inferred to be about 1.0 kpc by reference to other star-forming regions in the vicinity. The extinction is large, as demonstrated by [Fe II] emission line ratios in the near-IR and by the strength of the diffuse interstellar band spectrum; a provisional value of A_V of 3.0 mag was assumed. The SED of MWC 778 rises steeply beyond about 1 $mu$m, with a slope characteristic of a Class I source. Integration of the flux distribution leads to an IR luminosity of about 510 L_solar. If MWC 778 is indeed a F- or G-type pre--main-sequence star several magnitudes above the ZAMS, a population of faint emission Halpha stars would be expected in the vicinity. Such a search, like other investigations that are recommended in this paper, has yet to be carried out.
We use ~88 arcmin**2 of deep (>~26.5 mag at 5 sigma) NICMOS data over the two GOODS fields and the HDF South to conduct a search for bright z>~7 galaxy candidates. This search takes advantage of an efficient preselection over 58 arcmin**2 of NICMOS H-band data where only plausible z>~7 candidates are followed up with NICMOS J-band observations. ~248 arcmin**2 of deep ground-based near-infrared data (>~25.5 mag, 5 sigma) is also considered in the search. In total, we report 15 z-dropout candidates over this area -- 7 of which are new to these search fields. Two possible z~9 J-dropout candidates are also found, but seem unlikely to correspond to z~9 galaxies. The present z~9 search is used to set upper limits on the prevalence of such sources. Rigorous testing is undertaken to establish the level of contamination of our selections by photometric scatter, low mass stars, supernovae (SNe), and spurious sources. The estimated contamination rate of our z~7 selection is ~24%. Through careful simulations, the effective volume available to our z>~7 selections is estimated and used to establish constraints on the volume density of luminous (L*(z=3), or -21 mag) galaxies from these searches. We find that the volume density of luminous star-forming galaxies at z~7 is 13_{-5}^{+8}x lower than at z~4 and >25x lower (1 sigma) at z~9 than at z~4. This is the most stringent constraint yet available on the volume density of >~L* galaxies at z~9. The present wide-area, multi-field search limits cosmic variance to <20%. The evolution we find at the bright end of the UV LF is similar to that found from recent Subaru Suprime-Cam, HAWK-I or ERS WFC3/IR searches. The present paper also includes a complete summary of our final z~7 z-dropout sample (18 candidates) identified from all NICMOS observations to date (over the two GOODS fields, the HUDF, galaxy clusters).
We derive photometric redshifts (zp) for sources in the entire ($sim0.4$ deg$^2$) Hawaii-Hubble Deep Field-North (hdfn) field with the EAzY code, based on point spread function-matched photometry of 15 broad bands from the ultraviolet (bandu~band) to mid-infrared (IRAC 4.5 $mu$m). Our catalog consists of a total of 131,678 sources. We evaluate the zp~quality by comparing zp~with spectroscopic redshifts (zs) when available, and find a value of normalized median absolute deviation sigm$=$0.029 and an outlier fraction of 5.5% (outliers are defined as sources having $rm |zp - zs|/(1+zs) > 0.15$) for non-X-ray sources. More specifically, we obtain sigm$=0.024$ with 2.7% outliers for sources brighter than $R=23$~mag, sigm$=0.035$ with 7.4% outliers for sources fainter than $R=23$~mag, sigm$=$0.026 with 3.9% outliers for sources having $z<1$, and sigm$=$0.034 with 9.0% outliers for sources having $z>1$. Our zp quality shows an overall improvement over an earlier zp work that focused only on the central hdfn area. We also classify each object as star or galaxy through template spectral energy distribution fitting and complementary morphological parametrization, resulting in 4959 stars and 126,719 galaxies. Furthermore, we match our catalog with the 2~Ms {it Chandra} Deep Field-North main xray~catalog. For the 462 matched non-stellar xray~sources (281 having zs), we improve their zp~quality by adding three additional AGN templates, achieving sigm$=0.035$ and an outlier fraction of 12.5%. We make our catalog publicly available presenting both photometry and zp, and provide guidance on how to make use of our catalog.
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