Issue |
A&A
Volume 509, January 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A83 | |
Number of page(s) | 16 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912868 | |
Published online | 22 January 2010 |
Optical and near-IR spectroscopy of candidate red galaxies in two z ~ 2.5 proto-clusters*
1
European Southern Observatory, ESO Santiago, Alonso
de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile e-mail: mdoherty@eso.org
2
European Southern Observatory, ESO Garching, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748, Garching, Germany
3
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, Box 951547, CA 90095, USA
4
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
5
Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany
6
Max Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, 68165, Garching, Germany
7
Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
8
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA91109, USA
9
Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 650 North Aohoku Place, Hilo, HI96720, USA
10
Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Aramaki, Aoba, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
Received:
10
July
2009
Accepted:
3
November
2009
We present a spectroscopic campaign to follow-up red colour-selected
candidate massive galaxies in two high redshift proto-clusters
surrounding radio galaxies. We observed a total of 57 galaxies in
the field of MRC 0943-242 (z=2.93) and 33 in the field of MRC 1138-262
(z=2.16) with a mix of optical and near-infrared multi-object
spectroscopy.
We confirm two red galaxies in the field of MRC 1138-262 at the
redshift of the radio galaxy. Based on an analysis of their
spectral energy distributions, and their derived star formation
rates from the Hα and observed frame 24 μm flux, one object belongs to
the class of dust-obscured star-forming red galaxies, while the
other is evolved with little ongoing star formation. This result
represents the first red and mainly passively evolving galaxy to be
confirmed as companion galaxies in a z>2 proto-cluster. Both red
galaxies in MRC 1138-262 are massive, of the order of . They lie along a colour-magnitude relation
which implies that they formed the bulk of their stellar population
around z=4.
In the MRC 0943-242 field we find no red galaxies at the redshift of the
radio galaxy but we do confirm the effectiveness of our
selection of galaxies at 2.3<z<3.1, finding that 10 out of 18
(56%) of
-selected galaxies whose redshifts could be
measured fall within this redshift range. We also serendipitously
identify an interesting foreground structure of 6 galaxies at
z=2.6 in the field of MRC 0943-242. This may be a proto-cluster
itself, but complicates any interpretation of the red sequence
build-up in MRC 0943-242 until more redshifts can be measured.
Key words: galaxies: clusters: individual: MRC 1138-262 / galaxies: clusters: individual: MRC 0943-242 / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: high-redshift / large-scale structure of Universe / infrared: galaxies
Based in part on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and in part on data collected with ESO's Very Large Telescope UT1/Antu, under program ID 080.A-0463(B), and with the VLT/Melipal telescope during the first X-shooter commissioning run, and ESO's New Technology Telescope under program ID 076.A-0670(B).
© ESO, 2010
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