TY - JOUR
T1 - Euclid preparation: XXI. Intermediate-redshift contaminants in the search for $z>6$ galaxies within the Euclid Deep Survey
AU - Euclid Collaboration
AU - Euclid Collaboration, null
AU - van Mierlo, S. E.
AU - Caputi, K. I.
AU - Ashby, M.
AU - Atek, H.
AU - Bolzonella, M.
AU - Bowler, R. A. A.
AU - Brammer, G.
AU - Conselice, C. J.
AU - Cuby, J.
AU - Dayal, P.
AU - Díaz-Sánchez, A.
AU - Finkelstein, S. L.
AU - Hoekstra, H.
AU - Humphrey, A.
AU - Ilbert, O.
AU - McCracken, H. J.
AU - Milvang-Jensen, B.
AU - Oesch, P. A.
AU - Pello, R.
AU - Rodighiero, G.
AU - Schirmer, M.
AU - Toft, S.
AU - Weaver, J. R.
AU - Wilkins, S. M.
AU - Willott, C. J.
AU - Zamorani, G.
AU - Amara, A.
AU - Auricchio, N.
AU - Baldi, M.
AU - Bender, R.
AU - Bodendorf, C.
AU - Bonino, D.
AU - Branchini, E.
AU - Brescia, M.
AU - Brinchmann, J.
AU - Camera, S.
AU - Capobianco, V.
AU - Carbone, C.
AU - Carretero, J.
AU - Castellano, M.
AU - Kunz, M.
AU - Schneider, P.
AU - Sirignano, C.
AU - Taylor, A. N.
AU - Valentijn, E. A.
AU - Wang, Y.
AU - Mei, S.
AU - George, K.
AU - Viel, M.
PY - 2022/10/26
Y1 - 2022/10/26
N2 - (Abridged) The Euclid mission is expected to discover thousands of
z>6 galaxies in three Deep Fields, which together will cover a ~40
deg2 area. However, the limited number of Euclid bands and availability
of ancillary data could make the identification of z>6 galaxies
challenging. In this work, we assess the degree of contamination by
intermediate-redshift galaxies (z=1-5.8) expected for z>6 galaxies
within the Euclid Deep Survey. This study is based on ~176,000 real
galaxies at z=1-8 in a ~0.7 deg2 area selected from the UltraVISTA
ultra-deep survey, and ~96,000 mock galaxies with 25.3$\leq$H6 with Euclid data alone will be very
effective, with a z>6 recovery of 91(88)% for bright (faint)
galaxies. For the UltraVISTA-like bright sample, the percentage of
z=1-5.8 contaminants amongst apparent z>6 galaxies as observed with
Euclid alone is 18%, which is reduced to 4(13)% by including ultra-deep
Rubin (Spitzer) photometry. Conversely, for the faint mock sample, the
contamination fraction with Euclid alone is considerably higher at 39%,
and minimized to 7% when including ultra-deep Rubin data. For
UltraVISTA-like bright galaxies, we find that Euclid (I-Y)>2.8 and
(Y-J)6
galaxies, although these are applicable to only 54% of the contaminants,
as many have unconstrained (I-Y) colours. In the most optimistic
scenario, these cuts reduce the contamination fraction to 1% whilst
preserving 81% of the fiducial z>6 sample. For the faint mock sample,
colour cuts are infeasible.
AB - (Abridged) The Euclid mission is expected to discover thousands of
z>6 galaxies in three Deep Fields, which together will cover a ~40
deg2 area. However, the limited number of Euclid bands and availability
of ancillary data could make the identification of z>6 galaxies
challenging. In this work, we assess the degree of contamination by
intermediate-redshift galaxies (z=1-5.8) expected for z>6 galaxies
within the Euclid Deep Survey. This study is based on ~176,000 real
galaxies at z=1-8 in a ~0.7 deg2 area selected from the UltraVISTA
ultra-deep survey, and ~96,000 mock galaxies with 25.3$\leq$H6 with Euclid data alone will be very
effective, with a z>6 recovery of 91(88)% for bright (faint)
galaxies. For the UltraVISTA-like bright sample, the percentage of
z=1-5.8 contaminants amongst apparent z>6 galaxies as observed with
Euclid alone is 18%, which is reduced to 4(13)% by including ultra-deep
Rubin (Spitzer) photometry. Conversely, for the faint mock sample, the
contamination fraction with Euclid alone is considerably higher at 39%,
and minimized to 7% when including ultra-deep Rubin data. For
UltraVISTA-like bright galaxies, we find that Euclid (I-Y)>2.8 and
(Y-J)6
galaxies, although these are applicable to only 54% of the contaminants,
as many have unconstrained (I-Y) colours. In the most optimistic
scenario, these cuts reduce the contamination fraction to 1% whilst
preserving 81% of the fiducial z>6 sample. For the faint mock sample,
colour cuts are infeasible.
KW - Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
KW - Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
KW - Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/202243950
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202243950
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 666
JO - Astronomy & astrophysics
JF - Astronomy & astrophysics
M1 - A200
ER -