Optimizing Cadences with Realistic Light-curve Filtering for Serendipitous Kilonova Discovery with Vera Rubin Observatory

Current and future optical and near-infrared wide-field surveys have the potential to find kilonovae, the optical and infrared counterparts to neutron star mergers, independently of gravitational-wave or high-energy gamma-ray burst triggers. The ability to discover fast and faint transients such as kilonovae largely depends on the area observed, the depth of those observations, the number of revisits per field in a given time frame, and the filters adopted by the survey; it also depends on the ability to perform rapid follow-up observations to confirm the nature of the transients. In this work, we assess kilonova detectability in existing simulations of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time strategy for the Vera C. Rubin Wide Fast Deep survey, with focus on comparing rolling to baseline cadences. Although currently available cadences can enable the detection of >300 kilonovae out to ∼1400 Mpc over the 10 year survey, we can expect only 3–32 kilonovae similar to GW170817 to be recognizable as fast-evolving transients. We also explore the detectability of kilonovae over the plausible parameter space, focusing on viewing angle and ejecta masses. We find that observations in redder izy bands are crucial for identification of nearby (within 300 Mpc) kilonovae that could be spectroscopically classified more easily than more distant sources. Rubin’s potential for serendipitous kilonova discovery could be increased by gain of efficiency with the employment of individual 30 s exposures (as opposed to 2 × 15 s snap pairs), with the addition of red-band observations coupled with same-night observations in g or r bands, and possibly with further development of a new rolling-cadence strategy.

The Spitzer/IRAC Legacy over the GOODS Fields: Full-depth 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 μm Mosaics and Photometry for >9000 Galaxies at z ∼ 3.5–10 from the GOODS Reionization Era Wide-area Treasury from Spitzer (GREATS)

We present the deepest Spitzer/InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 μm wide-area mosaics yet over the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-N and GOODS-S fields as part of the GOODS Reionization Era wide-Area Treasury from Spitzer (GREATS) project. We reduced and mosaicked in a self-consistent way observations taken by the 11 different Spitzer/IRAC programs over the two GOODS fields from 12 yr of Spitzer cryogenic and warm-mission data. The cumulative depth in the 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm bands amounts to ∼4260 hr, ∼1220 hr of which are new very deep observations from the GREATS program itself. In the deepest area, the full-depth mosaics reach ≳200 hr over an area of ∼100 arcmin2, corresponding to a sensitivity of ∼29 AB magnitude at 3.6 μm (1σ for point sources). Archival cryogenic 5.8 μm and 8.0 μm band data (a cumulative 976 hr) are also included in the release. The mosaics are projected onto the tangential plane of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey/GOODS at a 0.″3 pixel−1 scale. This paper describes the methodology enabling, and the characteristics of, the public release of the mosaic science images, the corresponding coverage maps in the four IRAC bands, and the empirical point-spread functions (PSFs). These PSFs enable mitigation of the source blending effects by taking into account the complex position-dependent variation in the IRAC images. The GREATS data products are in the Infrared Science Archive. We also release the deblended 3.6–8.0 μm photometry 9192 Lyman-break galaxies at z ∼ 3.5–10. GREATS will be the deepest mid-infrared imaging until the James Webb Space Telescope and, as such, constitutes a major resource for characterizing early galaxy assembly.

On the Impact of Inclination-dependent Attenuation on Derived Star Formation Histories: Results from Disk Galaxies in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey Fields

We develop and implement an inclination-dependent attenuation prescription for spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting and study its impact on derived star formation histories. We apply our prescription within the SED fitting code Lightning to a clean sample of 82, z = 0.21–1.35 disk-dominated galaxies in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North and South fields. To compare our inclination-dependent attenuation prescription with more traditional fitting prescriptions, we also fit the SEDs with the inclination-independent Calzetti et al. (2000) attenuation curve. From this comparison, we find that fits to a subset of 58, z < 0.7 galaxies in our sample, utilizing the Calzetti et al. (2000) prescription, recover similar trends with inclination as the inclination-dependent fits for the far-UV-band attenuation and recent star formation rates. However, we find a difference between prescriptions in the optical attenuation (A V ) that is strongly correlated with inclination (p‐value < 10−11). For more face-on galaxies, with i ≲ 50°, (edge-on, i ≈ 90°), the average derived A V is 0.31 ± 0.11 magnitudes lower (0.56 ± 0.16 magnitudes higher) for the inclination-dependent model compared to traditional methods. Further, the ratio of stellar masses between prescriptions also has a significant (p‐value < 10−2) trend with inclination. For i = 0°–65°, stellar masses are systematically consistent between fits, with log 10 ( M ⋆ inc / M ⋆ Calzetti ) = − 0.05 ± 0.03 dex and scatter of 0.11 dex. However, for i ≈ 80°–90°, the derived stellar masses are lower for the Calzetti et al. (2000) fits by an average factor of 0.17 ± 0.03 dex and scatter of 0.13 dex. Therefore, these results suggest that SED fitting assuming the Calzetti et al. (2000) attenuation law potentially underestimates stellar masses in highly inclined disk-dominated galaxies.

The Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) Survey Design, Reductions, and Detections*

We describe the survey design, calibration, commissioning, and emission-line detection algorithms for the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). The goal of HETDEX is to measure the redshifts of over a million Lyα emitting galaxies between 1.88 < z < 3.52, in a 540 deg2 area encompassing a comoving volume of 10.9 Gpc3. No preselection of targets is involved; instead the HETDEX measurements are accomplished via a spectroscopic survey using a suite of wide-field integral field units distributed over the focal plane of the telescope. This survey measures the Hubble expansion parameter and angular diameter distance, with a final expected accuracy of better than 1%. We detail the project’s observational strategy, reduction pipeline, source detection, and catalog generation, and present initial results for science verification in the Cosmological Evolution Survey, Extended Groth Strip, and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North fields. We demonstrate that our data reach the required specifications in throughput, astrometric accuracy, flux limit, and object detection, with the end products being a catalog of emission-line sources, their object classifications, and flux-calibrated spectra.

Spectral energy distribution similarity of the local galaxies and the 3.6 μm selected galaxies from the Spitzer Extended Deep Survey

The Spitzer Extended Deep Survey (SEDS) as a deep and wide mid-infrared (MIR) survey project provides a sample of 500 000+ sources spreading 1.46 square degree and a depth of 26 AB mag (3σ). Combining with the previous available data, we build a PSF-matched multi-wavelength photometry catalog from u band to 8 μm. We fit the SEDS galaxies spectral energy distributions by the local galaxy templates. The results show that the SEDS galaxy can be fitted well, indicating the high redshift galaxy (z ∼ 1) shares the same templates with the local galaxies. This study would facilitate the further study of the galaxy luminosity and high redshift mass function.

Ionizing radiation from AGNs at z > 3.3 with the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey and the CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey (CLAUDS)

We use deep and wide imaging data from the CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey (CLAUDS) and the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) to constrain the ionizing radiation (Lyman Continuum; LyC) escape fraction from AGNs at z ∼ 3–4. For 94 AGNs with spectroscopic redshifts at 3.3 &lt; z &lt; 4.0, we use their U-band / i-band flux ratios to estimate LyC transmission of individual AGNs. The distribution of their LyC transmission shows values lower than the range of LyC transmission values for IGM of the same redshift range, which suggests that LyC escape fraction of AGNs at z &gt; 3.3 is considerably lower than unity in most cases. We do not find any trend in LyC transmission values depending on their UV luminosities. Based on the photometry of stacked images we find the average flux ratio of LyC and non-ionizing UV photons escaping from the objects (fLyC/fUV)out = 0.182 ± 0.043 for AGNs at 3.3 &lt; z &lt; 3.6, which corresponds to LyC escape fraction fesc = 0.303 ± 0.072 if we assume a fiducial intrinsic SED of AGN. Based on the estimated LyC escape fraction and the UV luminosity function of AGNs, we argue that UV-selected AGNs’ contribution to the LyC emissivity at the epoch is minor, although the size of their contribution largely depends on the shape of the UV luminosity function.

An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Halo Masses for Submillimetre Galaxies

We present an analysis of the spatial clustering of a large sample of high-resolution, interferometically identified, submillimetre galaxies (SMGs). We measure the projected cross-correlation function of ∼ 350 SMGs in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep-Survey Field across a redshift range of z = 1.5–3 utilising a method that incorporates the uncertainties in the redshift measurements for both the SMGs and cross-correlated galaxies through sampling their full probability distribution functions. By measuring the absolute linear bias of the SMGs we derive halo masses of $\log _{10}(M_{\rm halo}[{h^{-1}\, \rm M_{\odot }}])$ ∼ 12.8 with no evidence of evolution in the halo masses with redshift, contrary to some previous work. From considering models of halo mass growth rates we predict that the SMGs will reside in haloes of mass $\log _{10}(M_{\rm halo}[{h^{-1}\, \rm M_{\odot }}])$ ∼ 13.2 at z = 0, consistent with the expectation that the majority of z = 1.5–3 SMGs will evolve into present-day spheroidal galaxies. Finally, comparing to models of stellar-to-halo mass ratios, we show that SMGs may correspond to systems that are maximally efficient at converting their gas reservoirs into stars. We compare them to a simple model for gas cooling in halos that suggests that the unique properties of the SMG population, including their high levels of star-formation and their redshift distribution, are a result of the SMGs being the most massive galaxies that are still able to accrete cool gas from their surrounding intragalactic medium.

An ALMA survey of the S2CLS UDS field: optically invisible submillimetre galaxies

ABSTRACT We analyse a robust sample of 30 near-infrared-faint (KAB &gt; 25.3, 5σ) submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) selected from a 0.96 deg2 field to investigate their properties and the cause of their faintness in optical/near-infrared wavebands. Our analysis exploits precise identifications based on Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) 870-μm continuum imaging, combined with very deep near-infrared imaging from the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey. We estimate that SMGs with KAB &gt; 25.3 mag represent 15 ± 2 per cent of the total population brighter than S870 = 3.6 mJy, with a potential surface density of ∼450 deg−2 above S870 ≥ 1 mJy. As such, they pose a source of contamination in surveys for both high-redshift ‘quiescent’ galaxies and very high redshift Lyman-break galaxies. We show that these K-faint SMGs represent the tail of the broader submillimetre population, with comparable dust and stellar masses to KAB ≤ 25.3 mag SMGs, but lying at significantly higher redshifts (z = 3.44 ± 0.06 versus z = 2.36 ± 0.11) and having higher dust attenuation (AV = 5.2 ± 0.3 versus AV = 2.9 ± 0.1). We investigate the origin of the strong dust attenuation and find indications that these K-faint galaxies have smaller dust continuum sizes than the KAB ≤ 25.3 mag galaxies, as measured by ALMA, which suggests their high attenuation is related to their compact sizes. We identify a correlation of dust attenuation with star formation rate surface density (ΣSFR), with the K-faint SMGs representing the higher ΣSFR and highest AV galaxies. The concentrated, intense star formation activity in these systems is likely to be associated with the formation of spheroids in compact galaxies at high redshifts, but as a result of their high obscuration these galaxies are completely missed in ultraviolet, optical, and even near-infrared surveys.