EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES FROM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PROBING EVOLUTION AND REIONIZATION SPECTROSCOPICALLY (PEARS) GRISM SURVEY. II. THE COMPLETE SAMPLE

Journal Article · Sat Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/772/1/48· OSTI ID:22121851

Pirzkal, Nor; Rothberg, Barry; Ly, Chun; Grogin, Norman A.; Dahlen, Tomas; Noeske, Kai G.; Bellini, Andrea ^[1]; Malhotra, Sangeeta; Rhoads, James E.; Cohen, Seth H.; Mechtley, Matthew; Windhorst, Rogier A. ^[2]; Meurer, Gerhardt R. ^[3]; Walsh, Jeremy R. ^[4]; Hathi, Nimish P. ^[5]; Holwerda, Benne W. ^[6]; Straughn, Amber N. ^[7]

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1. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21210 (United States)
2. School of Earth And Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (United States)
3. International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 (Australia)
4. European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
5. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
6. ESA-ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG, Noordwijk (Netherlands)
7. Astrophysics Science Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

We present a full analysis of the Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) slitess grism spectroscopic data obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board Hubble Space Telescope. PEARS covers fields within both the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) North and South fields, making it ideal as a random survey of galaxies, as well as the availability of a wide variety of ancillary observations complemented by the spectroscopic results. Using the PEARS data, we are able to identify star-forming galaxies (SFGs) within the redshift volume 0 < z < 1.5. Star-forming regions in the PEARS survey are pinpointed independently of the host galaxy. This method allows us to detect the presence of multiple emission-line regions (ELRs) within a single galaxy. We identified a total of 1162 H{alpha}, [O III], and/or [O II] emission lines in the PEARS sample of 906 galaxies to a limiting flux of {approx}10{sup -18} erg s{sup -1} cm{sup -2}. The ELRs have also been compared to the properties of the host galaxy, including morphology, luminosity, and mass. From this analysis, we find three key results: (1) the computed line luminosities show evidence of a flattening in the luminosity function with increasing redshift; (2) the star-forming systems show evidence of complex morphologies with star formation occurring predominantly within one effective (half-light) radius. However, the morphologies show no correlation with host stellar mass. (3) Also, the number density of SFGs with M{sub *} {>=} 10{sup 9} M{sub Sun} decreases by an order of magnitude at z {<=} 0.5 relative to the number at 0.5 < z < 0.9, supporting the argument of galaxy downsizing.

• OSTI ID: 22121851
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 772, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CAMERAS
CATALOGS
EMISSION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
MASS
MORPHOLOGY
RANDOMNESS
RED SHIFT
STARS
TELESCOPES