| Authors | Adams, Joshua J.; Blanc, Guillermo A.; Hill, Gary J.; Gebhardt, Karl; Drory, Niv; Hao, Lei; Bender, Ralf; Byun, Joyce; Ciardullo, Robin; Cornell, Mark E.; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Fry, Alex; Gawiser, Eric; Gronwall, Caryl; Hopp, Ulrich; Jeong, Donghui; Kelz, Andreas; Kelzenberg, Ralf; Komatsu, Eiichiro; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Murphy, Jeremy; Odoms, P. Samuel; Roth, Martin; Schneider, Donald P.; Tufts, Joseph R.; Wilkinson, Christopher P. |
| Abstract | We present a catalog of emission-line galaxies selected solely by their emission-line fluxes using a wide-field integral field spectrograph. This work is partially motivated as a pilot survey for the upcoming Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment. We describe the observations, reductions, detections, redshift classifications, line fluxes, and counterpart information for 397 emission-line galaxies detected over 169 squ' with a 3500-5800 Å bandpass under 5 Å full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) spectral resolution. The survey's best sensitivity for unresolved objects under photometric conditions is between 4 and 20× 10-17 erg s-1 cm-2 depending on the wavelength, and Lyα luminosities between 3 × 1042 and 6 × 1042 erg s-1 are detectable. This survey method complements narrowband and color-selection techniques in the search of high-redshift galaxies with its different selection properties and large volume probed. The four survey fields within the COSMOS, GOODS-N, MUNICS, and XMM-LSS areas are rich with existing, complementary data. We find 105 galaxies via their high-redshift Lyα emission at 1.9 < z < 3.8, and the majority of the remainder objects are low-redshift [O II]3727 emitters at z < 0.56. The classification between low- and high-redshift objects depends on rest-frame equivalent width (EW), as well as other indicators, where available. Based on matches to X-ray catalogs, the active galactic nuclei fraction among the Lyα emitters is 6%. We also analyze the survey's completeness and contamination properties through simulations. We find five high-z, highly significant, resolved objects with FWHM sizes >44 squ' which appear to be extended Lyα nebulae. We also find three high-z objects with rest-frame Lyα EW above the level believed to be achievable with normal star formation, EW0>240 Å. Future papers will investigate the physical properties of this sample. This paper includes data taken at The McDonald Observatory of The University of Texas at Austin. |
