Optical Selection of Star-forming Galaxies at Redshifts 1 < z < 3

By K. Adelberger, C. Steidel, A. Shapley, M. Hunt, D. Erb, Naveen A. Reddy, M. Pettini. 2004

208 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Few galaxies have been found between the redshift ranges z ≲ 1 probed by magnitude-limited surveys and z ≳ 3 probed by Lyman break surveys. Comparison of galaxy samples at lower and higher redshift suggests that large numbers of stars were born and the Hubble sequence began to take shape at the intermediate redshifts 1 < z < 3, but observational challenges have prevented us from observing the process in much detail. We present simple and efficient strategies that can be used to find large numbers of galaxies throughout this important but unexplored redshift range. All the strategies are based on selecting galaxies for spectroscopy on the basis of their colors in ground-based images taken through a small number of optical filters: Gℛi for redshifts 0.85 < z < 1.15, Gℛz for 1 < z < 1.5, and UnGℛ for 1.4 < z < 2.1 and 1.9 < z < 2.7. The performance of our strategies is quantified empirically through spectroscopy of more than 2000 galaxies at 1 < z < 3.5. We estimate that more than half of the UV luminosity density at 1 < z < 3 is produced by galaxies that satisfy our color selection criteria. Our methodology is described in detail, allowing readers to devise analogous selection criteria for other optical filter systems.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d8b27bbfed5abcbf5bca9860f76d76cf7da87e6c

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. A. Dekel
4. R. Dav'e
5. R. Somerville
6. D. M. Alexander
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In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. A. Dekel
3. C. Conroy
4. L. Hernquist
5. R. Dav'e
6. P. V. van Dokkum
7. A. Shapley
8. C. Steidel

Citations in the corpus

• THE COSMOS-WIRCam NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING SURVEY. I. BzK-SELECTED PASSIVE AND STAR-FORMING GALAXY CANDIDATES AT z ≳ 1.4 (2009, methodology): “Similar techniques can be used at 1< z < 3 (Adelberger et al. 2004; Erb et al. 2003) and large samples of UV-selected star-forming galaxies now exist at these redshifts.”
• Dynamical Properties of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies and a Universal Star Formation Relation (2007, background): “In the literature (Adelberger et al. 2004), these are referred to as ‘‘BX’’ galaxies (in the redshift range 2.0Y2.”
• SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 UV-selected Galaxies: Rotation Curves and Dynamical Evolution (2006, methodology): “Similarly, Adelberger et al. (2004, 2005a) found that the observed comoving number density of BX objects is consistent with the estimated clustering strength, meaning that there are sufficient halos to host galaxies of these halo masses.”
• Nebular Emission Line Ratios in z ≃ 2–3 Star-forming Galaxies with KBSS-MOSFIRE: Exploring the Impact of Ionization, Excitation, and Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Ratio (2016, methodology): “The majority of KBSS galaxies are selected by their rest-UV colors, based on a UnGR color selection designed to identify Lyman Break Galaxy analogues at z ≃ 2−2.7 (Adelberger et al. 2004; Steidel et al. 2004).”
• A Census of Optical and Near-Infrared Selected Star-forming and Passively Evolving Galaxies at Redshift z ~ 2 (2005, methodology): “2.0 using the following criteria: G−R≥−0.2 Un −G≥G−R− 0.1 G−R≤ 0.2(Un −G) + 0.4 Un −G≤G−R+ 0.2 (2) (Adelberger et al. 2004; Steidel et al. 2004).”
• Star Formation and Extinction in Redshift z~2 Galaxies: Inferences from Spitzer MIPS Observations (2006, methodology): “We refer to ‘‘BM’’ and ‘‘BX’’ galaxies as those that are selected to be at redshifts 1:5P zP 2 and 2:0P zP 2:6, respectively (Adelberger et al. 2004; Steidel et al. 2004).”
• Ultraviolet to Mid-Infrared Observations of Star-forming Galaxies at z ~ 2: Stellar Masses and Stellar Populations (2005, methodology): “Within the 8′.3 by 7′.8 region covered by the Palomar Ks image, there is a total of 508 BX and MD-type galaxy candidates identified from the optical photometry using the selection criteria defined by Adelberger et al. (2004b) and Steidel et al. (2003), respectively; of those, 389 (77”
• THE SINS SURVEY: MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF z ∼ 2 GALAXIES AND THE HIGH-z TULLY–FISHER RELATION (2009, methodology): “A variety of selection techniques have been developed to create well-defined samples of z=1-6 galaxies, from UV to submillimeter wavelengths (e.g. Giavalisco et al. 2002, Steidel et al. 2004, Adelberger et al. 2004, Franx et al. 2003, Chapman et al. 2005, Daddi et al. 2004b).”
• DIFFUSE Lyα EMITTING HALOS: A GENERIC PROPERTY OF HIGH-REDSHIFT STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2011, background): “…〈z〉 = 2.65 is broadly representative of UVselected spectroscopic samples (e.g., Steidel et al. 2003; Shapley et al. 2003; Steidel et al. 2004; Adelberger et al. 2004) in terms of both continuum and Lyα properties: for example, they have 23.4 ≤ RAB ≤ 25.5 with median (mean) of RAB = 24.47…”
• From Rings to Bulges: Evidence for Rapid Secular Galaxy Evolution at z ~ 2 from Integral Field Spectroscopy in the SINS Survey (2008, background): “Large samples are now available, based on their rest-frame UVmagnitude/color properties (the socalled ‘‘BX/BM’’ criterion: Adelberger et al. 2004; Steidel et al. 2004), or on rest-frame optical magnitude/color properties (‘‘starforming’’ or ‘‘s’’-BzKs; Daddi et al. 2004a, 2004b; DRGs: Franx et al.…”
• A Spectroscopic Survey of Redshift 1.4 ≲ z ≲ 3.0 Galaxies in the GOODS-North Field: Survey Description, Catalogs, and Properties (2006, methodology): “…redshifts 1:4 P z P 2:0 and 2:0 P z P 2:5, respectively, with approximately the same range of UV luminosity and intrinsic UV color as the z 3 LBGs (Adelberger et al. 2004; Steidel et al. 8 Note that we did not select M galaxies in GOODS-N as was done in other fields of the z 3 survey (Steidel et…”
• The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (2023, methodology): “The BX selection ( using the BX technique, see, e.g., Adelberger et al. 2004 ) and u - dropout targets were signi fi ed by the DESILBG _ BXU _ FINAL bit; the g -dropouts were signi fi ed by the DESILBG _ G _ FINAL bit; and a new selection that resembled the LBG _ TOMOG target class outlined in…”
• COMBINED CO AND DUST SCALING RELATIONS OF DEPLETION TIME AND MOLECULAR GAS FRACTIONS WITH COSMIC TIME, SPECIFIC STAR-FORMATION RATE, AND STELLAR MASS (2014, methodology): “…al. 2007, 2009), including the recent CANDELS J- and Hband HST imaging (Grogin et al. 2011, Koekemoer et al. 2011) and 3D-HST grism spectroscopy (Brammer et al. 2012, Skelton et al. 2014), as well as D3a (Kong et al. 2006) and the BX/BM samples of Steidel et al. (2004) and Adelberger et al. (2004).”
• STRONG NEBULAR LINE RATIOS IN THE SPECTRA of z ∼ 2–3 STAR FORMING GALAXIES: FIRST RESULTS FROM KBSS-MOSFIRE (2014, background): “…25.5 UV color selected galaxies expected to have redshifts within the optimal 2 <∼ z <∼ 2.6 range (in practice, these are the “BX” and “MD” objects defined by Adelberger et al. (2004); Steidel et al. (2004) and Steidel et al. (2003)) (4) rest-UV color-selected galaxies judged likely to have…”
• FORMATION OF MASSIVE GALAXIES AT HIGH REDSHIFT: COLD STREAMS, CLUMPY DISKS, AND COMPACT SPHEROIDS (2009, background): “The typical cases are represented by UV-selected galaxies termed BX/BM (Adelberger et al. 2004) and rest-frame optically selected galaxies termed sBzK (Daddi et al. 2004), which we refer to collectively as massive “Star-Forming Galaxies” (SFGs).”
• Spectroscopic Identification of a Protocluster at z = 2.300: Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Properties at High Redshift (2005, methodology): “Given the estimate b ∼ 2.1 (Adelberger et al. 2004) for the galaxy bias in the BX sample, we use the approach of Steidel et al. (1998) to estimate the true mass over-density δm.”
• A STEEP FAINT-END SLOPE OF THE UV LUMINOSITY FUNCTION AT z ∼ 2–3: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GLOBAL STELLAR MASS DENSITY AND STAR FORMATION IN LOW-MASS HALOS (2008, methodology): “Fields and Photometry The Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) survey is being conducted in fields chosen primarily for having relatively bright background QSOs with which to study the interface between the IGM and galaxies at z ∼ 2 − 3 (Adelberger et al. 2003, 2004, 2005b; Steidel et al. 2003, 2004).”
• The evolution of the hard X-ray luminosity function of AGN (2009, background): “An additional sample of objects at slightly lower redshifts is selected using the BX selection criteria (Adelberger et al. 2004): G − R ≥ −0.2 Un − G ≥ G − R + 0.2 G − R ≤ 0.2(Un − G) + 0.4 Un − G < G − R + 1.0.”
• High-redshift clumpy discs and bulges in cosmological simulations (2009, background): “…O N Observations at high redshifts in the range z ∼ 1–3 have opened a new window into the most active period of galaxy formation (Steidel et al. 1999; Adelberger et al. 2004; Daddi et al. 2004; Genzel et al. 2006; Förster Schreiber et al. 2006; Elmegreen et al. 2006; Genzel et al. 2008; Stark et…”