COSMOS-Web: An Overview of the JWST Cosmic Origins Survey

Abstract

We present the survey design, implementation, and outlook for COSMOS-Web, a 255 hr treasury program conducted by the James Webb Space Telescope in its first cycle of observations. COSMOS-Web is a contiguous 0.54 deg2 NIRCam imaging survey in four filters (F115W, F150W, F277W, and F444W) that will reach 5σ point-source depths ranging ∼27.5–28.2 mag. In parallel, we will obtain 0.19 deg2 of MIRI imaging in one filter (F770W) reaching 5σ point-source depths of ∼25.3–26.0 mag. COSMOS-Web will build on the rich heritage of multiwavelength observations and data products available in the COSMOS field. The design of COSMOS-Web is motivated by three primary science goals: (1) to discover thousands of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (6 ≲ z ≲ 11) and map reionization’s spatial distribution, environments, and drivers on scales sufficiently large to mitigate cosmic variance, (2) to identify hundreds of rare quiescent galaxies at z > 4 and place constraints on the formation of the universe’s most-massive galaxies (M ⋆ > 1010 M ⊙), and (3) directly measure the evolution of the stellar-mass-to-halo-mass relation using weak gravitational lensing out to z ∼ 2.5 and measure its variance with galaxies’ star formation histories and morphologies. In addition, we anticipate COSMOS-Web’s legacy value to reach far beyond these scientific goals, touching many other areas of astrophysics, such as the identification of the first direct collapse black hole candidates, ultracool subdwarf stars in the Galactic halo, and possibly the identification of z > 10 pair-instability supernovae. In this paper we provide an overview of the survey’s key measurements, specifications, goals, and prospects for new discovery.

Cross Correlation of Pencil-beam Galaxy Surveys and Line-intensity Maps: An Application of the James Webb Space Telescope

“…For 100 total hours of JWST time with the Lyα technique, we find ∼100 pointings appears to maximize the number of detected galaxies. We point out that this is very similar to the same area on the sky covered by the COSMOS-Webb survey (Casey et al 2023), which will cover ∼(90 Mpc) 2 or (0.6 deg) 2 . However, in our examples presented below this same total area would be spread out over the larger footprints of the respective IM surveys (e.g., (6.3 deg) 2 in the case of SPHEREx-like experiment).…”

Rest-frame Near-infrared Radial Light Profiles up to z = 3 from JWST/NIRCam: Wavelength Dependence of the Sérsic Index

“…For these galaxies the structure may be expected to vary the strongest with wavelength due to centrally concentrated, dust-obscured star formation activity. As larger areas are observed with the NIRCam by, for example, JADES (Williams et al 2018), UNCOVER (Bezanson et al 2022), and COSMOS-Web (Casey et al 2023), this challenge will be addressed. In the central and right panelsred and blue colors are used to identify quiescent and star-forming galaxies.…”

ALMA Millimeter/Submillimeter Sources among Spitzer SMUVS Galaxies at z > 2 in the COSMOS Field

“…Obtaining their stellar morphologies and color gradients with multiband images from JWST would lead to further investigation into what causes the difference between the ALMAdetected and nondetected sources or the difference between the main-sequence galaxies and starbursts at a given stellar mass. The widefield observations with NIRCam and MIRI are now being conducted in the COSMOS field (COSMOS-Web;Casey et al 2023). The NIRCam imaging data in four filters covering 0.54 deg 2 will become available once the program has been completed, and this will be a useful data set for SMUVS sources.…”