The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS)

Full spectroscopic data and auxiliary information release (PDR-2)^⋆

¹ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
e-mail: marcos@lambrate.inaf.it
² INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, 20122 Milano – via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, Italy
³ Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁵ Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, LAM, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Marseille, France
⁶ INAF–Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
⁷ Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR7293, Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 06300 Nice, France
⁸ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, ch. d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
⁹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia – Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹⁰ Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce, Poland
¹¹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland
¹² INFN, Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
¹³ IRAP (Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France
¹⁴ Aix-Marseille Université – Pharo – 58 bd Charles Livon Jardin du Pharo – 13007 Marseille, France
¹⁵ Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-001 Cracow, Poland
¹⁶ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
¹⁷ INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
¹⁸ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
¹⁹ Aix Marseille Univ., Univ. Toulon, CNRS, CPT, Marseille, France
²⁰ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
²¹ INFN, Sezione di Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
²² INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy
²³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
²⁴ Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
²⁵ Department of Astronomy & Physics, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada
²⁶ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
²⁷ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, PO13 FX, UK
²⁸ Institut Universitaire de France, 75231 Paris, France

Received: 22 November 2016
Accepted: 28 April 2017

Abstract

We present the full public data release (PDR-2) of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS), performed at the ESO VLT. We release redshifts, spectra, CFHTLS magnitudes and ancillary information (as masks and weights) for a complete sample of 86 775 galaxies (plus 4732 other objects, including stars and serendipitous galaxies); we also include their full photometrically-selected parent catalogue. The sample is magnitude limited to i_AB ≤ 22.5, with an additional colour-colour pre-selection devised as to exclude galaxies at z < 0.5. This practically doubles the effective sampling of the VIMOS spectrograph over the range 0.5 < z < 1.2 (reaching 47% on average), yielding a final median local galaxy density close to 5 × 10^-3h³ Mpc^-3. The total area spanned by the final data set is ≃ 23.5 deg², corresponding to 288 VIMOS fields with marginal overlaps, split over two regions within the CFHTLS-Wide W1 and W4 equatorial fields (at RA ≃ 2 and ≃ 22 h, respectively). Spectra were observed at a resolution R = 220, covering a wavelength range 5500−9500 Å. Data reduction and redshift measurements were performed through a fully automated pipeline; all redshift determinations were then visually validated and assigned a quality flag. Measurements with a quality flag ≥ 2 are shown to have a confidence level of 96% or larger and make up 88% of all measured galaxy redshifts (76 552 out of 86 775), constituting the VIPERS prime catalogue for statistical investigations. For this sample the rms redshift error, estimated using repeated measurements of about 3000 galaxies, is found to be σ_z = 0.00054(1 + z). All data are available at http://vipers.inaf.it and on the ESO Archive.