A K-band Selected Photometric Redshift Catalog in the HDF-S: Sampling the Rest-Frame V-Band to z=3

Using the newly available infrared images of the Hubble Deep Field in the J, H, and K bands and an optimal photometric method, we have refined a technique to estimate the redshifts of 1067 galaxies. A detailed comparison of our results with the spectroscopic redshifts in those cases where the latter are available shows that this technique gives very good results for bright enough objects (AB(8140) < 26.0). From a study of the distribution of residuals (Dz(rms)/(1+z) ~ 0.1 at ...

This paper presents the ``First Epoch'' sample from the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). The VVDS goals, observations, data reduction with VIPGI, and redshift measurement with KBRED are discussed. Data have been obtained with the VIsible Multi Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) on the ESO-VLT UT3, allowing to observe ~600 slits simultaneously at R~230. A total of 11564 objects have been observed in the VVDS-02h and VVDS-CDFS Deep fields over a total area of 0.61deg^2, selected solely o...

Photometric redshifts have proven a powerful tool in identifying galaxies over a large range of lookback times. We have been generalising this technique to incorporate the selection of candidate high redshift QSOs. We have applied this to a large optical/near-infrared imaging survey in 6 wavebands aiming to push farther in redshift (and fainter in luminosity) than previous studies. We believe that study of these very faint and distant objects provides valuable insights into g...

We investigate the nature of the substantial population of high-z galaxies with Js-Ks>2.3 discovered as part of our FIRES survey. This colour cut efficiently isolates z>2 galaxies with red rest-frame optical colors ("Distant Red Galaxies" or DRGs). We select objects in the 2.5'x2.5' HDF-South (HDF-S) and 5'x5' field around the MS1054-03 cluster; the surface densities at Ks<21 are 1.6+-0.6 and 1.0+-0.2 arcmin^-2. We discuss the 34 DRGs at 2<z<3.5: 11 at Ks<22.5 in HDF-S and 23...

We present optical spectroscopic follow-up of a sample of Distant Red Galaxies (DRGs) with K < 22.5 (Vega), selected by J-K > 2.3, in the Hubble Deep Field South, the MS 1054-03 field, and the Chandra Deep Field South. Spectroscopic redshifts were obtained for 15 DRGs. Only 2 out of 15 DRGs are located at z < 2, suggesting a high efficiency to select high-redshift sources. From other spectroscopic surveys in the CDFS targeting intermediate to high redshift populations selec...

We present a deep multicolor (UBVIJsHKs) catalog of galaxies in the HDF-S, based on observations obtained with the HST WFPC2 in 1998 and VLT-ISAAC in 1999. The photometric procedures were tuned to derive a catalog optimized for the estimation of photometric redshifts. In particular we adopted a ``conservative'' detection threshold which resulted in a list of 1611 objects. The behavior of the observed source counts is in general agreement with the result of Casertano et al. (2...

Recent results on the incidence of red galaxies in a > 100 square arcminute field galaxy survey to K=20 and a K=22 survey of the Hubble Deep Field are presented. We argue that a simple photometric redshift indicator, based on J-K color and supported by spectroscopic results obtained with Keck, gives a reliable lower limit of ~25% for the fraction of z>1 galaxies in the 100 square arcminute survey. This fraction is substantially higher than found in previous smaller samples, a...

We apply both a traditional `dropout' approach and a photometric redshift estimation technique to the Hubble Deep Field South data. We give a list of dropout selected z$\sim$3 objects, and show their images. We then discuss our photometric redshift estimation technique, demonstrate both its effectiveness and the role played by near-IR data, and then apply it to HDF-S to obtain an estimated redshift distribution.

We present a new K-selected, optical-to-near-infrared photometric catalog of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS), making it publicly available to the astronomical community. The dataset is founded on publicly available imaging, supplemented by original zJK imaging data obtained as part of the MUltiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC). The final photometric catalog consists of photometry derived from nine band U-K imaging covering the full 0.5x0.5 sq. deg. of the ...

(Abridged) We present rest-frame R-band galaxy luminosity function measurements for three different redshift ranges: 0.5<=z<=0.75, 0.75<=z<=1.0, and 1.0<=z<=1.5. Our measurements are based on photometric redshifts for ~3000 H-band selected galaxies with apparent magnitudes 17<=H<=20 from the Las Campanas Infrared Survey. We show that our photometric redshifts are accurate with an RMS dispersion between the photometric and spectroscopic redshifts of \sigma_z/(1+z)~0.08. Using ...