The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Survey (VIPERS)^⋆

First Data Release of 57 204 spectroscopic measurements

¹ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
e-mail: bianca@lambrate.inaf.it
² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, P.zza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
⁴ Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388, Marseille, France
⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
⁶ Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, 65–1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela, HI 96743, USA
⁷ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CPT (Centre de Physique Théorique) UMR 7332, 13288 Marseille, France
⁸ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
⁹ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
¹⁰ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO1 3FX, UK
¹¹ Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, PO Box 23-141, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan
¹² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
¹³ SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
¹⁴ Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce, Poland
¹⁵ Department of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8602 Nagoya, Japan
¹⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹⁷ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹⁸ Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
¹⁹ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, 84571 Garching b. München, Germany
²⁰ Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-001 Cracow, Poland
²¹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland
²² Universitätssternwarte München, Ludwig-Maximillians Universität, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
²³ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
²⁴ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy
²⁵ Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Celoria 16, 20130 Milano, Italy
²⁶ INFN, Sezione di Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
²⁷ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone ( RM), Italy

Received: 3 October 2013
Accepted: 4 December 2013

Abstract

We present the first Public Data Release (PDR-1) of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Survey (VIPERS). It comprises 57 204 spectroscopic measurements together with all additional information necessary for optimal scientific exploitation of the data, in particular the associated photometric measurements and quantification of the photometric and survey completeness. VIPERS is an ESO Large Programme designed to build a spectroscopic sample of ≃100 000 galaxies with i_AB < 22.5 and 0.5 < z < 1.2 with high sampling rate (≃45%). The survey spectroscopic targets are selected from the CFHTLS-Wide five-band catalogues in the W1 and W4 fields. The final survey will cover a total area of nearly 24 deg², for a total comoving volume between z = 0.5 and 1.2 of ≃4 × 10⁷   h^-3   Mpc³ and a median galaxy redshift of z ≃ 0.8. The release presented in this paper includes data from virtually the entire W4 field and nearly half of the W1 area, thus representing 64% of the final dataset. We provide a detailed description of sample selection, observations and data reduction procedures; we summarise the global properties of the spectroscopic catalogue and explain the associated data products and their use, and provide all the details for accessing the data through the survey database (http://vipers.inaf.it) where all information can be queried interactively.