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arXiv · 1105.4609

The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3

Katherine E. Whitaker·Ivo Labbe·Pieter G. van Dokkum·Gabriel Brammer·Mariska Kriek·Danilo Marchesini·Ryan F. Quadri·Marijn Franx·Adam Muzzin·Rik J. Williams·Rachel Bezanson·Garth D. Illingworth·Kyoung-Soo Lee·Britt Lundgren·Erica J. Nelson·Gregory Rudnick·Tomer Tal·David A. Wake
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Abstract

We present deep near-infrared (NIR) medium-bandwidth photometry over the wavelength range 1-1.8 microns in the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS) and Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) fields. The observations were carried out as part of the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey (NMBS), an NOAO survey program on the Mayall 4m telescope on Kitt Peak using the NOAO Extremely Wide-Field Infrared Imager (NEWFIRM). In this paper, we describe the full details of the observations, data reduction and photometry for the survey. We also present a public K-selected photometric catalog, along with accurate photometric redshifts. The redshifts are computed with 37 (20) filters in the COSMOS (AEGIS) fields, combining the NIR medium-bandwidth data with existing ultraviolet (UV; Galaxy Evolution Explorer), visible and NIR (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Subaru) and mid-IR (Spitzer/IRAC) imaging. We find excellent agreement with publicly available spectroscopic redshifts, with sigma_z/(1+z)~1-2% for ~4000 galaxies at z=0-3. The NMBS catalogs contain ~13,000 galaxies at z>1.5 with accurate photometric redshifts and rest-frame colors. Due to the increased spectral resolution obtained with the five NIR medium-band filters, the median 68% confidence intervals of the photometric redshifts of both quiescent and star-forming galaxies are a factor of ~2 times smaller when comparing catalogs with medium-band NIR photometry to NIR broadband photometry. We show evidence for a clear bimodal color distribution between quiescent and star-forming galaxies that persists to z~3, a higher redshift than has been probed so far.

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Katherine E. Whitaker, Ivo Labbe, Pieter G. van Dokkum, Gabriel Brammer, Mariska Kriek, Danilo Marchesini, Ryan F. Quadri, Marijn Franx, Adam Muzzin, Rik J. Williams, Rachel Bezanson, Garth D. Illingworth, Kyoung-Soo Lee, Britt Lundgren, Erica J. Nelson, Gregory Rudnick, Tomer Tal, David A. Wake. 2011-05-23. The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/735/2/86

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