The PSCz catalogue
We present the catalogue and redshift data for the PSCz survey of 15,000 IRAS galaxies over 84% of the sky. The uniformity, completeness and data quality are assessed, and guidelines and caveats for its use are given.
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Publications and source records attributed to Seb Oliver.
We present the catalogue and redshift data for the PSCz survey of 15,000 IRAS galaxies over 84% of the sky. The uniformity, completeness and data quality are assessed, and guidelines and caveats for its use are given.
We perform a detailed comparison of the IRAS PSCz and 1.2-Jy spherical harmonic coefficients of the density and velocity fields in redshift space. The monopole terms predicted from the two surveys show some differences. The mismatch between the velocity monopoles arises from faint sources and disappears when extracting a PSCz subsample of galaxies with fluxes larger than 1.2 Jy. The analysis of PSCz dipole moments confirms the same inconsistencies found by Davis, Nusser and Willick (1996) between the IRAS 1.2-Jy gravity field and MARK III peculiar velocities. We conclude that shot-noise, which is greatly reduced in our PSCz gravity field, cannot be responsible for the observed mismatch.
Surveys with ISO (Kessler et al 1996), in particular with the CAM (Cesarsky et al 1996) and PHOT (Lemke et al 1996) instruments, will greatly extend our understanding of extra-galactic populations and their cosmological evolution. The main advantages that ISO surveys have over e.g IRAS are increased sensitivity/depth and wavelength coverage. Within the Guaranteed and Open Time programmes there are many field surveys which will efficiently map the limits in these parameters. In this talk I will briefly overview those surveys before concentrating in more detail on one survey in particular, the ISO survey of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), to illustrate the kind of results that can be expected.
The European Large Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) has surveyed ~12 square degrees of the sky at 15mu and 90mu and subsets of this area at 6.75mu and 175mu using the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). This project was the largest single open time programme executed by ISO, taking 375 hours of data. A preliminary catalogue of more than 1000 galaxies has been produced. In this talk we describe the goals of the project and present a provisional number count analysis at 15 \micron.
The advent of sensitive sub-mm array cameras now allows a proper census of dust-enshrouded massive star-formation in very distant galaxies, previously hidden activity to which even the deepest optical images are insensitive. We present the deepest sub-mm survey, taken with the SCUBA camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). The high source density on this image implies that the survey is confusion-limited below a flux density of 2 mJy. However within the central 80 arcsec radius independent analyses yield 5 reproducible sources with S(850um) > 2 mJy which simulations indicate can be ascribed to individual galaxies. These data lead to integral source counts which are completely inconsistent with a no evolution model, whilst the combined brightness of the 5 most secure sources in our map is sufficient to account for 30-50% of the previously unresolved sub-mm background, and statistically the entire background is resolved at about the 0.3 mJy level. Four of the five brightest sources appear to be associated with galaxies which lie in the redshift range 2 < z < 4. With the caveat that this is a small sample of sources detected in a small survey area, these submm data imply a star-formation density over this redshift range that is at least five times higher than that inferred from the rest-frame ultraviolet output of HDF galaxies.
We present a new determination of the co-moving star formation density at redshifts z~<0.35 from the 1.4 GHz luminosity function of sub-mJy star-burst galaxies. Our sample, taken from Benn et al. (1993), is insensitive to dust obscuration. The shape of the Luminosity function of this sample is indistinguishable from a number of reasonable a prior models of the luminosity function. Using these shapes we calculate the modest corrections (typically ~< 20 per cent to the observed 1.4 GHz luminosity density. We find that the cosmic variance in our estimate of this luminosity density is large. We find a luminosity density in broad agreement with that from the RSA sample by Condon et al. (1987). We infer a co-moving star formation rate surprisingly similar to coeval estimates from the Canada-France Redshift Survey, in both ultraviolet and Halpha, although the later may also be affected by Cosmic variance. We conclude that the intermediate 0.05<z<0.3 star-formation rate is not yet well determined partially due to uncertain extinction corrections, but also partially due to cosmic variance. We suggest that deep moderate area radio surveys will improve this situation considerably.
The advent of sensitive sub-mm array cameras now allows a proper census of dust-enshrouded massive star-formation in very distant galaxies, previously hidden activity to which even the faintest optical images are insensitive. We present the deepest sub-mm survey of the sky to date, taken with the SCUBA camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and centred on the Hubble Deep Field. The high source density found in this image implies that the survey is confusion-limited below a flux density of 2 mJy. However, within the central 80 arcsec radius independent analyses yield 5 reproducible sources with S(850um) > 2 mJy which simulations indicate can be ascribed to individual galaxies. We give positions and flux densities for these, and furthermore show using multi-frequency photometric data that the brightest sources in our map lie at redshifts z~3. These results lead to integral source counts which are completely inconsistent with a no-evolution model, and imply that massive star-formation activity continues at redshifts > 2. The combined brightness of the 5 most secure sources in our map is sufficient to account for 30 - 50% of the previously unresolved sub-mm background, and we estimate statistically that the entire background is resolved at about the 0.3 mJy level. Finally we discuss possible optical identifications and redshift estimates for the brightest sources. One source appears to be associated with an extreme starburst galaxy at z~1, whilst the remaining four appear to lie in the redshift range 2 < z < 4. This implies a star-formation density over this redshift range that is at least five times higher than that inferred from the ultraviolet output of HDF galaxies.
We present source counts at 6.7 micron and 15 micron from our maps of the Hubble Deep Field region, reaching 38.6 microJy at 6.7 micron and 255 microJy at 15 micron. These are the first ever extra-galactic number counts to be presented at 6.7 micron and are 3 decades fainter than IRAS at 12 micron. Both source counts and a P(D) analysis suggest we have reached the ISO confusion limit at 15 micron: this will have important implications for future space missions. These data provide an excellent reference point for other ongoing ISO surveys. A no-evolution model at 15 micron is ruled out at >3 sigma, while two models which fit the steep IRAS 60 micron counts are acceptable. This provides important confirmation of the strong evolution seen in IRAS surveys. One of these models can then be ruled out from the 6.7 micron data.
I describe a European collaborative project to survey \sim 20 square degrees of the sky at 15\micron and 90\micron with ISO. This is the largest open time project being undertaken by ISO. The depth and areal coverage were designed to complement the various Guaranteed Time surveys. The main science thrust is to explore star formation in galaxies to a much higher redshift than was probed by IRAS. We expect to detect around 8000 extra-galactic objects and a similar number of Galactic sources. The maps and source catalogues will represent a major legacy from ISO, inspiring follow up work for many years to come.
There has been some disagreement about the strength of evolution exhibited by IRAS galaxies. With a parameterisation such that the co-moving density increases as $(1+z)^P$ measurements of $P$ range from $2\pm3$ to $6.7\pm2.3$. We have recently completed a deep IRAS redshift survey which should help to clarify the situation. Paying particular attention to possible systematic effects (notably Malmquist Bias) we claim positive detection of evolution within this sample at the $3σ$ level. Our best estimate of the strength of evolution seen in this survey is $P=5.6\pm1.6\pm0.7$ corresponding to luminosity evolution $L(z)=L_{z=0}(1+z) ^{3.3\pm0.8\pm0.6}$. This estimate is consistent with all previous determinations of the rate of cosmological evolution of IRAS galaxies. Neither this survey nor any previous survey is sufficiently deep to distinguish between pure luminosity and pure density evolution nor between different parameterisation of these forms.