High-Redshift Clusters of Extremely Red Objects

Details High-Redshift Clusters of Extremely Red Objects High-Redshift Clusters of Extremely Red Objects

Feb 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000noao.prop..361l&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2000A-0361

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose to use MMT/PISCES to obtain deep J and K- band imaging of high-redshift (z~1.3-1.6) cluster candidates which have been discovered by the presence in these fields of several Extremely Red Objects (EROs). These optically faint, IR-bright (K≳18, R-K> 6) galaxies, missed by most optical surveys, are likely fundamental to understanding the present-day luminous galaxy population. Recent Keck spectroscopy has discovered that the EROs in our target fields are localized in redshift and that some have spectra similar to present-day elliptical galaxies. These are the highest redshift concentrations of old galaxies known to date and point to the presence of massive galaxy clusters. Combining the proposed MMT/PISCES near-IR imaging with Keck optical imaging and spectroscopy and HST imaging, we will carry out an extensive study of the massive galaxy population in these fields over a wide range of galaxy types. We will measure the galaxies' color distribution, infer their star formation histories, and compute photometric redshifts. We will use the IR data to assemble a less-biased galaxy sample for Keck spectroscopy, and, using available and proposed HST WFPC2 imaging, will investigate the relation between cluster galaxy morphologies and stellar populations. This work will provide a detailed picture of the galaxy formation process at look-back times of ≳ 70% of the cosmic age and provide a test of hierarchical galaxy formation scenarios, which predict rapid and dramatic cluster galaxy evolution at these redshifts.

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