The 3D-HST and CANDELS programs have provided WFC3 and ACS spectroscopy and photometry over ≈ 900 arcmin 2 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 0.3 µm -8 µm. 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. 16
Spectroscopic+photometric redshifts, stellar mass estimates, and rest-frame colors from the 3D-HST survey are combined with structural parameter measurements from CANDELS imaging to determine the galaxy size-mass distribution over the redshift range 0 < z < 3. Separating early-and late-type galaxies on the basis of star-formation activity, we confirm that early-type galaxies are on average smaller than late-type galaxies at all redshifts, and we find a significantly different rate of average size evolution at fixed galaxy mass, with fast evolution for the early-type population, R eff ∝ (1 + z) −1.48 , and moderate evolution for the late-type population, R eff ∝ (1 + z) −0.75 . The large sample size and dynamic range in both galaxy mass and redshift, in combination with the high fidelity of our measurements due to the extensive use of spectroscopic data, not only fortify previous results, but also enable us to probe beyond simple average galaxy size measurements. At all redshifts the slope of the size-mass relation is shallow, R eff ∝ M 0.22 * , for late-type galaxies with stellar mass > 3 × 10 9 M , and steep, R eff ∝ M 0.75 * , for early-type galaxies with stellar mass > 2 × 10 10 M . The intrinsic scatter is 0.2 dex for all galaxy types and redshifts. For late-type galaxies, the logarithmic size distribution is not symmetric but is skewed toward small sizes: at all redshifts and masses a tail of small late-type galaxies exists that overlaps in size with the early-type galaxy population. The number density of massive (∼ 10 11 M ), compact (R eff < 2kpc) early-type galaxies increases from z = 3 to z = 1.5 − 2 and then strongly decreases at later cosmic times.
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, 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 (PI: B. Weiner). We developed software to automatically and optimally extract interlaced two-dimensional (2D) and one-dimensional (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 redshifts and line strengths (where available) for 22,548 unique objects down to JH 24 IR (79,609 unique objects down to JH 26 IR ). Of these, 5459 galaxies are at > z 1.5 and 9621 are at < < z 0.7 1.5, where Hα falls in the G141 wavelength coverage. The typical redshift error for JH 24 IR galaxies is s »´+z 0.003 1 z ( ), i.e., one native WFC3 pixel. The s 3 limit for emission line fluxes of point sources is´-2.1 10 17 erg s −1 cm −2 . All 2D and 1D spectra, as well as redshifts, line fluxes, and other derived parameters, are publicly available.
We present 3D-HST, a near-infrared spectroscopic Treasury program with the Hubble Space Telescope for studying the physical processes that shape galaxies in the distant universe. 3D-HST provides rest-frame optical spectra for a sample of ∼7000 galaxies at 1 < z < 3.5, the epoch when ∼60% of all star formation took place, the number density of quasars peaked, the first galaxies stopped forming stars, and the structural regularity that we see in galaxies today must have emerged. 3D-HST will cover three-quarters (625 arcmin 2 ) of the CANDELS Treasury survey area with two orbits of primary WFC3/G141 grism coverage and two to four orbits with the ACS/G800L grism in parallel. In the IR these exposure times yield a continuum signal-to-noise of ∼5 per resolution element at H 140 ∼ 23.1 and a 5σ emission line sensitivity of ∼ 5 × 10 −17 erg s −1 cm −2 for typical objects, improving by a factor of ∼ 2 for compact sources in images with low sky background levels. The WFC3/G141 spectra provide continuous wavelength coverage from 1.1 to 1.6 µm at a spatial resolution of ∼ 0. 13, which, combined with their depth, makes them a unique resource for studying galaxy evolution. We present an overview of the preliminary reduction and analysis of the grism observations, including emission line and redshift measurements from combined fits to the extracted grism spectra and photometry from ancillary multi-wavelength catalogs. The present analysis yields redshift estimates with a precision of σ(z) = 0.0034(1 + z), or σ(v) ≈ 1000 km s −1 . We illustrate how the generalized nature of the survey yields near-infrared spectra of remarkable quality for many different types of objects, including a quasar at z = 4.7, quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 2, and the most distant T-type brown dwarf star known. The combination of the CANDELS and 3D-HST surveys will provide the definitive imaging and spectroscopic dataset for studies of the 1 < z < 3.5 universe until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.
We study the structural evolution of massive galaxies by linking progenitors and descendants at a constant cumulative number density of n c = 1.4 × 10 −4 Mpc −3 to z ∼ 3. Structural parameters were measured by fitting Sérsic profiles to high-resolution CANDELS HST WFC3 J 125 and H 160 imaging in the UKIDSS-UDS at 1 < z < 3 and ACS I 814 imaging in COSMOS at 0.25 < z < 1. At a given redshift, we selected the HST band that most closely samples a common rest-frame wavelength so as to minimize systematics from color gradients in galaxies. At fixed n c , galaxies grow in stellar mass by a factor of ∼ 3 from z ∼ 3 to z ∼ 0. The size evolution is complex: galaxies appear roughly constant in size from z ∼ 3 to z ∼ 2 and then grow rapidly to lower redshifts. The evolution in the surface mass density profiles indicates that most of the mass at r < 2 kpc was in place by z ∼ 2, and that most of the new mass growth occurred at larger radii. This inside-out mass growth is therefore responsible for the larger sizes and higher Sérsic indices of the descendants toward low redshift. At z < 2, the effective radius evolves with the stellar mass as r e ∝ M 2.0 , consistent with scenarios that find dissipationless minor mergers to be a key driver of size evolution. The progenitors at z ∼ 3 were likely star forming disks with r e ∼ 2 kpc, based on their low Sérsic index of n ∼ 1, low median axis ratio of b/a ∼ 0.52, and typical location in the star-forming region of the U − V versus V − J diagram. By z ∼ 1.5, many of these star-forming disks disappeared, giving rise to compact quiescent galaxies. Toward lower redshifts, these galaxies continued to assemble mass at larger radii and became the local ellipticals that dominate the high-mass end of the mass function at the present epoch.
Quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 2 have been identified in large numbers based on rest-frame colors, but only a small number of these galaxies have been spectroscopically confirmed to show that their restframe optical spectra show either strong Balmer or metal absorption lines. Here, we median stack the rest-frame optical spectra for 171 photometrically-quiescent galaxies at 1.4 < z < 2.2 from the 3D-HST grism survey. In addition to Hβ (λ4861Å), we unambiguously identify metal absorption lines in the stacked spectrum, including the G-band (λ4304Å), Mg I (λ5175Å), and Na I (λ5894Å). This finding demonstrates that galaxies with relatively old stellar populations already existed when the universe was ∼ 3 Gyr old, and that rest-frame color selection techniques can efficiently select them. We find an average age of 1.3 +0.1 −0.3 Gyr when fitting a simple stellar population to the entire stack. We confirm our previous result from medium-band photometry that the stellar age varies with the colors of quiescent galaxies: the reddest 80% of galaxies are dominated by metal lines and have a relatively old mean age of 1.6 +0.5 −0.4 Gyr, whereas the bluest (and brightest) galaxies have strong Balmer lines and a spectroscopic age of 0.9 +0.2 −0.1 Gyr. Although the spectrum is dominated by an evolved stellar population, we also find [OIII] and Hβ emission. Interestingly, this emission is more centrally concentrated than the continuum with L OIII = 1.7 ± 0.3 × 10 40 erg s −1 , indicating residual central star formation or nuclear activity.
Galaxies with the mass of the Milky Way dominate the stellar mass density of the Universe but it is uncertain how and when they were assembled. Here we study progenitors of these galaxies out to z = 2.5, using data from the 3D-HST and CANDELS Treasury surveys. We find that galaxies with present-day stellar masses of log(M) ≈ 10.7 built ∼ 90 % of their stellar mass since z = 2.5, with most of the star formation occurring before z = 1. In marked contrast to the assembly history of massive elliptical galaxies, mass growth is not limited to large radii: the mass in the central 2 kpc of the galaxies increased by a factor of 3.2 +0.8 −0.7 between z = 2.5 and z = 1. We therefore rule out simple models in which bulges were fully assembled at high redshift and disks gradually formed around them. Instead, bulges (and black holes) likely formed in lockstep with disks, through bar instabilities, migration, or other processes. We find that after z = 1 the growth in the central regions gradually stopped and the disk continued to build, consistent with recent studies of the gas distributions in z ∼ 1 galaxies and the properties of many spiral galaxies today.
We examine the star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies in a redshift slice encompassing the z = 0.834 cluster RX J0152.7-1357. We used a low-dispersion prism in the Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) to identify galaxies with z AB < 23.3 mag in diverse environments around the cluster out to projected distances of ∼ 8 Mpc from the cluster center. We utilize a mass-limited sample (M > 2 × 10 10 M ⊙ ) of 330 galaxies that were imaged by Spitzer MIPS at 24 µm to derive SFRs and study the dependence of specific SFR (SSFR) on stellar mass and environment. We find that the SFR and SSFR show a strong decrease with increasing local density, similar to the relation at z ∼ 0. Our result contrasts with other work at z ∼ 1 that find the SFR-density trend to reverse for luminosity-limited samples. These other results appear to be driven by star-formation in lower mass systems (M ∼ 10 10 M ⊙ ). Our results imply that the processes that shut down star-formation are present in groups and other dense regions in the field. Our data also suggest that the lower SFRs of galaxies in higher density environments may reflect a change in the ratio of star-forming to non-starforming galaxies, rather than a change in SFRs. As a consequence, the SFRs of star-forming galaxies, in environments ranging from small groups to clusters, appear to be similar and largely unaffected by the local processes that truncate star-formation at z ∼ 0.8.
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