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Register a new userUV slope of z$sim$3 bright ($L>L^{*}$) Lyman-break galaxies in the COSMOS field
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We analyse a unique sample of 517 bright ($L>L^{*}$) LBGs at redshift z$sim$3 in order to characterise the distribution of their UV slopes $beta$ and infer their dust extinction under standard assumptions. We exploited multi-band observations over 750 arcmin$^2$ of the COSMOS field that were acquired with three different ground-based facilities: the Large Binocular Camera (LBC) on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), the Suprime-Cam on the SUBARU telescope, and the VIRCAM on the VISTA telescope (ULTRAVISTA DR2). Our multi-band photometric catalogue is based on a new method that is designed to maximise the signal-to-noise ratio in the estimate of accurate galaxy colours from images with different point spread functions (PSF). We adopted an improved selection criterion based on deep Y-band data to isolate a sample of galaxies at $zsim 3 $ to minimise selection biases. We measured the UV slopes ($beta$) of the objects in our sample and then recovered the intrinsic probability density function of $beta$ values (PDF($beta$)), taking into account the effect of observational uncertainties through detailed simulations. The galaxies in our sample are characterised by mildly red UV slopes with $<beta>simeq -1.70$ throughout the enitre luminosity range that is probed by our data ($-24lesssim M_{1600}lesssim -21$). The resulting dust-corrected star formation rate density (SFRD) is $log(SFRD)simeq-1.6 M_{odot}/yr/Mpc^{3}$, corresponding to a contribution of about 25% to the total SFRD at z$sim$3 under standard assumptions. Ultra-bright LBGs at $z sim 3$ match the known trends, with UV slopes being redder at decreasing redshifts, and brighter galaxies being more highly dust extinct and more frequently star-forming than fainter galaxies. [abridged]
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We present a deep LBT/LBC U-band imaging survey (9 deg2) covering the NOAO Bootes field. A total of 14,485 Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z~3 are selected, which are used to measure the rest-frame UV luminosity function (LF). The large sample size and survey area reduce the LF uncertainties due to Poisson statistics and cosmic variance by >3 compared to previous studies. At the bright end, the LF shows excess power compared to the best-fit Schechter function, which can be attributed to the contribution of $zsim3$ quasars. We compute the rest-frame near-infrared LF and stellar mass function (SMF) of z~3 LBGs based on the R-band and IRAC [4.5 micro m]-band flux relation. We investigate the evolution of the UV LFs and SMFs between z~7 and z~3, which supports a rising star formation history in the LBGs. We study the spatial correlation function of two bright LBG samples and estimate their average host halo mass. We find a tight relation between the host halo mass and the galaxy star formation rate (SFR),which follows the trend predicted by the baryonic accretion rate onto the halo, suggesting that the star formation in LBGs is fueled by baryonic accretion through the cosmic web. By comparing the SFRs with the total baryonic accretion rates, we find that cosmic star formation efficiency is about 5%-20% and it does not evolve significantly with redshift, halo mass, or galaxy luminosity.
We take advantage of the exceptional photometric coverage provided by the combination of GALEX data in the UV and the ALHAMBRA survey in the optical and near-IR to analyze the physical properties of a sample of 1225 GALEX-selected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at $0.8 lesssim z lesssim 1.2$ located in the COSMOS field. This is the largest sample of LBGs studied at that redshift range so far. According to a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting with synthetic stellar population templates, we find that LBGs at $z sim 1$ are mostly young galaxies with a median age of 341 Myr and have intermediate dust attenuation, $ < E_s (B-V) > sim 0.20$. Due to their selection criterion, LBGs at $z sim 1$ are UV-bright galaxies and have high dust-corrected total SFR, with a median value of 16.9 $M_odot {rm yr}^{-1}$. Their median stellar mass is $log{left(M_*/M_odot right)} = 9.74$. We obtain that the dust-corrected total SFR of LBGs increases with stellar mass and the specific SFR is lower for more massive galaxies. Only 2% of the galaxies selected through the Lyman break criterion have an AGN nature. LBGs at $z sim 1$ are mostly located over the blue cloud of the color-magnitude diagram of galaxies at their redshift, with only the oldest and/or the dustiest deviating towards the green valley and red sequence. Morphologically, 69% of LBGs are disk-like galaxies, with the fraction of interacting, compact, or irregular systems being much lower, below 12%. LBGs have a median effective radius of 2.5 kpc and bigger galaxies have higher total SFR and stellar mass. Comparing to their high-redshift analogues, we find evidence that LBGs at lower redshifts are bigger, redder in the UV continuum, and have a major presence of older stellar populations in their SEDs. However, we do not find significant difference in the distributions of stellar mass or dust attenuation.
We make use of ALMA continuum observations of $15$ luminous Lyman-break galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ to probe their dust-obscured star-formation. These observations are sensitive enough to probe to obscured SFRs of $20$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$ ($3sigma$). Six of the targeted galaxies show significant ($geq$$3$$sigma$) dust continuum detections, more than doubling the number of known dust-detected galaxies at $z$$>$$6.5$. Their IR luminosities range from $2.7$$times$$10^{11}$ $L_{odot}$ to $1.1$$times$$10^{12}$ $L_{odot}$, equivalent to obscured SFRs of $20$ to $105$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$. We use our results to quantify the correlation of the infrared excess IRX on the UV-continuum slope $beta_{UV}$ and stellar mass. Our results are most consistent with an SMC attenuation curve for intrinsic $UV$-slopes $beta_{UV,intr}$ of $-2.63$ and most consistent with an attenuation curve in-between SMC and Calzetti for $beta_{UV,intr}$ slopes of $-2.23$, assuming a dust temperature $T_d$ of $50$ K. Our fiducial IRX-stellar mass results at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ are consistent with marginal evolution from $z$$sim$$0$. We then show how both results depend on $T_d$. For our six dust-detected sources, we estimate their dust masses and find that they are consistent with dust production from SNe if the dust destruction is low ($<$$90$%). Finally we determine the contribution of dust-obscured star formation to the star formation rate density for $UV$ luminous ($<$$-$$21.5$ mag: $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$) $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ galaxies, finding that the total SFR density at $z$$sim$$7$ and $z$$sim$$8$ from bright galaxies is $0.18_{-0.10}^{+0.08}$ dex and $0.20_{-0.09}^{+0.05}$ dex higher, respectively, i.e. $sim$$frac{1}{3}$ of the star formation in $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$ galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ is obscured by dust.
We search for bright Ly$rm alpha$ emitters among Spitzer SMUVS galaxies at z > 2.9 with homogeneous MUSE data. Although it only covers a small region of COSMOS, MUSE has the unique advantage of providing spectral information over the entire field, without the need of target pre-selection. This gives an unbiased detection of all the brightest Ly$rm alpha$ emitters among SMUVS sources, which by design are stellar-mass selected galaxies. Within the studied area, ~14% of the SMUVS galaxies at z > 2.9 have Ly$rm alpha$ fluxes F$rm _lambda$ > 7 x 10$^{-18}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$. These Ly$rm alpha$ emitters are characterized by three types of emission, 47% show a single line profile, 19% present a double peak or a blue bump and 31% show a red tail. One object (3%) shows both a blue bump and a red tail. We also investigate the spectral energy distribution (SED) properties of the SMUVS MUSE-detected galaxies and MUSE non-detections. After stellar-mass matching both populations, we find that MUSE detected galaxies have generally lower extinction than SMUVS-only objects, while there is no clear intrinsic difference in the mass and age distributions. For the MUSE-detected SMUVS galaxies, we compare the instantaneous SFR lower limit given by Ly$rm alpha$ flux with its past average derived from SED fitting, and find evidence for rejuvenation in some of our oldest objects. We also study the spectra of those Ly$rm alpha$ emitters which are not detected in SMUVS in the same field. We find different distributions of the emission line profiles, which could be ascribed to the fainter Ly$rm alpha$ luminosities of the MUSE-only sources and an intrinsically different mass distribution. Finally, we search for the presence of galaxy associations. MUSEs integral coverage is 20 times more likely to find associations than all other existing spectral data in COSMOS, biased by target pre-selection.
Identifying the source population of ionizing radiation, responsible for the reionization of the universe, is currently a hotly debated subject with conflicting results. Studies of faint, high-redshift star-forming galaxies, in most cases, fail to detect enough escaping ionizing radiation to sustain the process. Recently, the capacity of bright quasi-stellar objects to ionize their surrounding medium has been confirmed also for faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs), which were found to display an escaping fraction of ~74% at z~4. Such levels of escaping radiation could sustain the required UV background, given the number density of faint AGNs is adequate. Thus, it is mandatory to accurately measure the luminosity function of faint AGNs (L~L*) in the same redshift range. For this reason we have conducted a spectroscopic survey, using the wide field spectrograph IMACS at the 6.5m Baade Telescope, to determine the nature of our sample of faint AGN candidates in the COSMOS field. This sample was assembled using photometric redshifts, color, and X-ray information. We ended up with 16 spectroscopically confirmed AGNs at 3.6<z<4.2 down to a magnitude of i$_{AB}$=23.0 for an area of 1.73 deg$^{2}$. This leads to an AGN space density of ~1.6$times10^{-6} Mpc^{-3}$ (corrected) at z~4 for an absolute magnitude of M$_{1450}$=-23.5. This is higher than previous measurements and seems to indicate that AGNs could make a substantial contribution to the ionizing background at z~4. Assuming that AGN physical parameters remain unchanged at higher redshifts and fainter luminosities, these sources could be regarded as the main drivers of cosmic reionization.
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