TY - JOUR
T1 - Searching for Intragroup Light in Deep U-band Imaging of the COSMOS Field
AU - McCabe, Tyler
AU - Redshaw, Caleb
AU - Otteson, Lillian
AU - Windhorst, R. A.
AU - Jansen, Rolf A.
AU - Cohen, Seth H.
AU - Carleton, Timothy
AU - Borthakur, Sanchayeeta
AU - Ashcraft, Teresa A.
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - Ryan, Russell E.
AU - Nonino, Mario
AU - Paris, Diego
AU - Grazian, Andrea
AU - Fontana, Adriano
AU - Giallongo, Emanuele
AU - Speziali, Roberto
AU - Testa, Vincenzo
AU - Boutsia, Konstantina
AU - O’Connell, Robert W.
AU - Rutkowski, Michael J.
AU - Scarlata, Claudia
AU - Teplitz, Harry I.
AU - Wang, Xin
AU - Rafelski, Marc
AU - Grogin, Norman A.
AU - Lucas, Ray A.
N1 - Funding Information:
T.M. would like to thank Brad Koplitz, Mansi Padave, and Alejandro Olvera for their thoughtful discussion and input throughout this project. The authors acknowledge support from UVCANDELS grant HST-GO-15647 provided by NASA through the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-2655, and from NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G and 80NSSC18K0200 from GSFC.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved
PY - 2023/6/1
Y1 - 2023/6/1
N2 - We present the results of deep, ground based U-band imaging with the Large Binocular Telescope of the Cosmic Evolution Survey field as part of the near-UV imaging program, UVCANDELS. We utilize a seeing sorted stacking method along with night-to-night relative transparency corrections to create optimal depth and optimal resolution mosaics in the U-band, which are capable of reaching point source magnitudes of AB∼26.5 mag at 3σ. These ground-based mosaics bridge the wavelength gap between the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 F275W and ACS F435W images and are necessary to understand galaxy assembly in the last 9-10 Gyr. We use the depth of these mosaics to search for the presence of U-band intragroup light (IGrL) beyond the local universe. Regardless of how groups are scaled and stacked, we do not detect any U-band IGrL to unprecedented U-band depths of ∼29.1-29.6 mag arcsec−2, which corresponds to an IGrL fraction of ≲1% of the total group light. This stringent upper limit suggests that IGrL does not contribute significantly to the Extragalactic Background Light at short wavelengths. Furthermore, the lack of UV IGrL observed in these stacks suggests that the atomic gas observed in the intragroup medium is likely not dense enough to trigger star formation on large scales. Future studies may detect IGrL by creating similar stacks at longer wavelengths or by pre-selecting groups which are older and/or more dynamically evolved similar to past IGrL observations of compact groups and loose groups with signs of gravitational interactions.
AB - We present the results of deep, ground based U-band imaging with the Large Binocular Telescope of the Cosmic Evolution Survey field as part of the near-UV imaging program, UVCANDELS. We utilize a seeing sorted stacking method along with night-to-night relative transparency corrections to create optimal depth and optimal resolution mosaics in the U-band, which are capable of reaching point source magnitudes of AB∼26.5 mag at 3σ. These ground-based mosaics bridge the wavelength gap between the Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 F275W and ACS F435W images and are necessary to understand galaxy assembly in the last 9-10 Gyr. We use the depth of these mosaics to search for the presence of U-band intragroup light (IGrL) beyond the local universe. Regardless of how groups are scaled and stacked, we do not detect any U-band IGrL to unprecedented U-band depths of ∼29.1-29.6 mag arcsec−2, which corresponds to an IGrL fraction of ≲1% of the total group light. This stringent upper limit suggests that IGrL does not contribute significantly to the Extragalactic Background Light at short wavelengths. Furthermore, the lack of UV IGrL observed in these stacks suggests that the atomic gas observed in the intragroup medium is likely not dense enough to trigger star formation on large scales. Future studies may detect IGrL by creating similar stacks at longer wavelengths or by pre-selecting groups which are older and/or more dynamically evolved similar to past IGrL observations of compact groups and loose groups with signs of gravitational interactions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165337376&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85165337376&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1538-3873/acdf83
DO - 10.1088/1538-3873/acdf83
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85165337376
SN - 0004-6280
VL - 135
JO - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
JF - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
IS - 1048
M1 - 064101
ER -