QSOs and Absorption-Line Systems surrounding the Hubble Deep Field
We have imaged a 45' x 45' area centered on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) in UBVRI passbands, down to the limiting magnitudes of approximately 21.5, 22.5, 22.2, 22.2, and 21.2, respectively. The principal goals of the survey are to identify quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) and to map structure traced by luminous galaxies and QSO absorption line systems in a wide volume containing the HDF. The area surveyed is 400 times as large as that of the HDF, and 40 times as large as that of the HDF Flanking Fields. We have selected QSO candidates from color space and identified four QSOs and two narrow emission line galaxies not yet discovered, bringing the total number of known QSOs in the area to 19. The bright z=1.305 QSO only 12' away from the HDF raises the northern HDF to nearly the same status as the southern Hubble Deep Field, which was selected to be proximate to a bright QSO. About half of the QSO candidates remain for spectroscopic verification. Absorption-line spectroscopy has been obtained for three bright QSOs in the field, using the 10 m Keck, 3.5 m ARC, and 2.4 m MDM telescopes. Five heavy-element absorption line systems have been identified, four of which overlap the well-explored redshift range covered by deep galaxy redshift surveys toward the HDF. The two absorbers at z=0.5565 and z=0.5621 occur at the same redshift as the secondmost populated redshift peak in the galaxy distribution, but each is more than 7 h-1 Mpc (comoving, {omega}{sub m} =1, {omega}{sub {lambda}} =0) away from the HDF line of sight in the transverse dimension. This supports more indirect evidence that the galaxy redshift peaks are contained within large sheetlike structures that traverse the HDF and may be precursors to large-scale ''pancake'' structures seen in the present-day galaxy distribution. (c) 2000 The American Astronomical Society.
- OSTI ID:
- 20217307
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal, Vol. 119, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 2000; ISSN 0004-6256
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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