Search

We report fourteen and twenty-eight protocluster candidates at z = 5.7 and 6.6 over 14 and 19 deg2 areas, respectively, selected from 2,230 Lyα emitters (LAEs) photometrically identified with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) deep images. Six out of the 42 protocluster candidates include at least 1 spectroscopically confirmed LAEs at redshifts up to z = 6.574. By the comparisons with the cosmological Lyα radiative transfer (RT) model reproducing LAEs with the reionization effects, we find that more than a half of these protocluster candidates might be progenitors of the present-day clusters with a mass of ≳ 1014M⊙. We also investigate the correlation between LAE overdensity and Lya rest-frame equivalent width (EW), because the cosmological Lyα RT model suggests that a slope of EW-overdensity relation is steepened towards the epoch of cosmic reionization (EoR), due to the existence of the ionized bubbles around galaxy overdensities easing the escape of Lyα emission from the partly neutral intergalactic medium. The available HSC data suggest that the slope of the EW-overdensity correlation does not evolve from the post-reionization epoch z = 5.7 to the EoR z = 6.6 beyond the moderately large statistical errors.

We present the clustering analysis of photometric luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at a redshift range of $0.1\leq z \leq 1.05$ using $615,317$ photometric LRGs selected from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program covering $\sim124$ deg$^{2}$. Our sample covers a broad range of stellar masses and photometric redshifts and enables a halo occupation distribution analysis to study the redshift and stellar-mass dependence of dark halo properties of LRGs. We find a tight correlation between the characteristic dark halo mass to host central LRGs, $M_{\min}$, and the number density of LRGs independently of redshifts, indicating that the formation of LRGs is associated with the global environment. The $M_{\min}$ of LRGs depends only weakly on the stellar mass $M_{\star}$ at $M_{\star} \lesssim 10^{10.75}h^{-2} M_{\odot}$ at $0.3, Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

Characterizing high-z quasar environments is key to understanding the co-evolution of quasars and the surrounding galaxies. To restrict their global picture, we statistically examine the g-dropout galaxy overdensity distribution around 570 faint quasar candidates at z ~ 4, based on the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program survey. We compare the overdensity significances of g-dropout galaxies around the quasars with those around g-dropout galaxies, and find no significant difference between their distributions. A total of 4 (22) out of the 570 faint quasars, 0.7_{-0.4}^{+0.4} (3.9_{-0.8}^{+0.8}) %, are found to be associated with the > 4 sigma overdense regions within an angular separation of 1.8 (3.0) arcmin, which is the typical size of protoclusters at this epoch. This is similar to the fraction of g-dropout galaxies associated with the > 4 sigma overdense regions. This result is consistent with our previous work that 1.3_{-0.9}^{+0.9} % and 2.0_{-1.1}^{+1.1} % of luminous quasars detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey exist in the > 4 sigma overdense regions within 1.8 and 3.0 arcmin separations, respectively. Therefore, we suggest that the galaxy number densities around quasars are independent of their luminosity, and most quasars do not preferentially appear in the richest protocluster regions at z ~ 4. The lack of an apparent positive correlation between the quasars and the protoclusters implies that: i) the gas-rich major merger rate is relatively low in the protocluster regions, ii) most high-z quasars may appear through secular processes, or iii) some dust-obscured quasars exist in the protocluster regions., 12 pages, 4 figures

We have carried out follow-up spectroscopy on three overdense regions of $g$- and $r$-dropout galaxies in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep Fields, finding two new protoclusters at $z=4.898$, 3.721 and a possible protocluster at $z=3.834$. The $z=3.721$ protocluster overlaps with a previously identified protocluster at $z=3.675$. The redshift separation between these two protoclusters is $\Delta z=0.05$, which is slightly larger than the size of typical protoclusters. Therefore, if they are not the progenitors of a $>10^{15}\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ halo, they would grow into closely-located independent halos like a supercluster. The other protocluster at $z=4.898$ is also surrounded by smaller galaxy groups. These systems including protoclusters and neighboring groups are regarded as the early phase of superclusters. We quantify the spatial distribution of member galaxies of the protoclusters at $z=3.675$ and 3.721 by fitting triaxial ellipsoids, finding a tentative difference: one has a pancake-like shape while the other is filamentary. This could indicate that these two protoclusters are in different stages of formation. We investigate the relation between redshift and the velocity dispersion of protoclusters, including other protoclusters from the literature, in order to compare their dynamical states. Although there is no significant systematic trend in the velocity dispersions of protoclusters with redshift, the distribution is skewed to higher velocity dispersion over the redshift range of $z=2\mathrm{-}6$. This could be interpreted as two phases of cluster formation, one dominated by the steady accretion of galaxies, and the other by the merging between group-size halos, perhaps depending on the surrounding large-scale environments., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 24 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables

We present the results of a survey of the brightest UV-selected galaxies in protoclusters. These proto-brightest cluster galaxy (proto-BCG) candidates are drawn from 179 overdense regions of $g$-dropout galaxies at $z\sim4$ from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program identified previously as good protocluster candidates. This study is the first to extend the systematic study of the progenitors of BCGs from $z\sim2$ to $z\sim4$. We carefully remove possible contaminants from foreground galaxies and, for each structure, we select the brightest galaxy that is at least 1 mag brighter than the fifth brightest galaxy. We select 63 proto-BCG candidates and compare their properties with those of galaxies in the field and those of other galaxies in overdense structures. The proto-BCG candidates and their surrounding galaxies have different rest-UV color $(i - z)$ distributions to field galaxies and other galaxies in protoclusters that do not host proto-BCGs. In addition, galaxies surrounding proto-BCGs are brighter than those in protoclusters without proto-BCGs. The image stacking analysis reveals that the average effective radius of proto-BCGs is $\sim28\%$ larger than that of field galaxies. The $i-z$ color differences suggest that proto-BCGs and their surrounding galaxies are dustier than other galaxies at $z\sim4$. These results suggest that specific environmental effects or assembly biasses have already emerged in some protoclusters as early as $z \sim 4$, and we suggest that proto-BCGs have different star formation histories than other galaxies in the same epoch., Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present the results of an halo occupation distribution (HOD) analysis of star-forming galaxies at $z \sim 2$. We obtained high-quality angular correlation functions based on a large sgzK sample, which enabled us to carry out the HOD analysis. The mean halo mass and the HOD mass parameters are found to increase monotonically with increasing $K$-band magnitude, suggesting that more luminous galaxies reside in more massive dark haloes. The luminosity dependence of the HOD mass parameters was found to be the same as in the local Universe; however, the masses were larger than in the local Universe over all ranges of magnitude. This implies that galaxies at $z \sim 2$ tend to form in more massive dark haloes than in the local Universe, a process known as downsizing. By analysing the dark halo mass evolution using the extended Press--Schechter formalism and the number evolution of satellite galaxies in a dark halo, we find that faint Lyman break galaxies at $z \sim 4$ could evolve into the faintest sgzKs $(22.0 < K \leq 23.0)$ at $z \sim 2$ and into the Milky-Way-like galaxies or elliptical galaxies in the local Universe, whereas the most luminous sgzKs $(18.0 \leq K \leq 21.0)$ could evolve into the most massive systems in the local Universe. The stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR) of the sgzKs was found to be consistent with the prediction of the model, except that the SHMR of the faintest sgzKs was smaller than the prediction at $z \sim 2$. This discrepancy may be attributed that our samples are confined to star-forming galaxies., 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present the clustering properties of low-$z$ $(z\leq1.4)$ galaxies selected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program Wide layer over $145$ deg$^{2}$. The wide-field and multi-wavelength observation yields $5,064,770$ galaxies at $0.3\leq z\leq1.4$ with photometric redshifts and physical properties. This enables the accurate measurement of angular correlation functions and subsequent halo occupation distribution (HOD) analysis allows the connection between baryonic properties and dark halo properties. The fraction of less-massive satellite galaxies at $z\lesssim1$ is found to be almost constant at $\sim20\%$, but it gradually decreases beyond $M_{\star} \sim 10^{10.4}h^{-2}M_{\odot}$. However, the abundance of satellite galaxies at $z>1$ is quite small even for less-massive galaxies due to the rarity of massive centrals at high-$z$. This decreasing trend is connected to the small satellite fraction of Lyman break galaxies at $z>3$. The stellar-to-halo mass ratios at $0.3\leq z\leq1.4$ are almost consistent with the predictions obtained using the latest empirical model; however, we identify small excesses from the theoretical model at the massive end. The pivot halo mass is found to be unchanged at $10^{11.9-12.1}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$ at $0.3\leq z\leq1.4$, and we systematically show that $10^{12}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$ is a universal pivot halo mass up to $z\sim5$ that is derived using only the clustering/HOD analyses. Nevertheless, halo masses with peaked instantaneous baryon conversion efficiencies are much smaller than the pivot halo mass regardless of a redshift, and the most efficient stellar-mass assembly is thought to be in progress in $10^{11.0-11.5}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$ dark haloes., Comment: 33 pages, 16 figures, submitted to ApJ

We have carried out deep and wide field imaging observations with narrow bands targeting 11 quasar fields to systematically study the possible photoevaporation effect of quasar radiation on surrounding low mass galaxies at $z\sim2-3$. We focused on Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) at the same redshifts as the quasars that lie within the quasar proximity zones, where the ultra-violet radiation from the quasars is higher than the average background at that epoch. We found that LAEs with high rest-frame equivalent width of Ly$��$ emission ($EW_0$) of $\gtrsim 150$��$~$ with low stellar mass ($\lesssim 10^8 M_{\odot}$), are predominantly scarce in the quasar proximity zones, suggesting that quasar photoevaporation effects may be taking place. The halo mass of LAEs with $EW_0>150$��$~$ is estimated to be $3.6^{+12.7}_{-2.3}\times10^9 M_{\odot}$ either from the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting or the main sequence. Based on a hydrodynamical simulation, the predicted delay in star formation under a local UV background intensity with $J (��_L)\gtrsim10^{-21}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ Hz$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$ for galaxies having less than this halo mass is about $>20$ Myr, which is longer than the expected age of LAEs with $EW_0>150$��. On the other hand, the photoevaporation seems to be less effective around very luminous quasars, which is consistent with the idea that these quasars are still in an early stage of quasar activity., 18 pages, 9 figures

We combined deep U-band imaging from the KPNO-4m/MOSAIC camera with very deep multi-waveband data from the optical to infrared, to select Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z~3 using U-V and V-R colors in the Subaru Deep Field. With the resulting sample of 5161 LBGs, we construct the UV luminosity function down to $M_{UV} = -18$ and find a steep faint-end slope of $\alpha=-1.78 \pm 0.05$. We analyze rest-frame UV-to-IR spectral energy distributions generated from the median optical photometry and photometry on median-stacked IR images. In the stacks of faint LBGs, we find a background depression centered on the galaxy. This deficit results from the systematic difficulty of SExtractor in finding faint galaxies in regions with higher-than-average surface densities of foreground galaxies. We corrected our stacked magnitudes for this. Best-fit stellar population templates for the stacked LBG SEDs indicate stellar masses and star-formation rates of log M*/Msun = 10 and 50 M$_\odot$/yr at i' = 24, down to log M*/Msun = 8 and = 3 M$_\odot$/yr at i' = 27. For the faint stacked LBGs there is a 1-mag excess over the expected stellar continuum in the K-band, which we attribute to redshifted [OIII]4959+5007 and H$\beta$ lines. Their implied equivalent widths increase with decreasing mass, reaching $\rm{EW_0([O III]4959,5007+H\beta)}$ =1500A in the faintest bin. Such strong [OIII] emission is seen only in a miniscule fraction of the most extreme local emission-line galaxies, but it probably universal in the faint galaxies that reionized the universe. Finally, we analyze clustering by computing the angular correlation function and performing halo occupation distribution (HOD) analysis. We find a mean dark halo mass of log(Mhalo/h) Msun = 11.29$\pm 0.12$ for the full sample of LBGs, and log(Mhalo/h) Msun = 11.49$\pm 0.1$ for the brightest half., Comment: scheduled for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 2017, 21 pages in preprint format (19 journal pages)

We present the cross-correlation between 151 luminous quasars ($M_{ \mathrm{UV}} < -26$) and 179 protocluster candidates at $z \sim 3.8$, extracted from the Wide imaging survey ($ \sim 121~ $deg$^2$) performed with a part of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). We find that only two out of 151 quasars reside in regions that are more overdense compared to the average field at $ > 4 ��$. The distributions of the distance between quasars and the nearest protoclusters and the significance of the overdensity at the position of quasars are statistically identical to those found for $g$-dropout galaxies, suggesting that quasars tend to reside in almost the same environment as star-forming galaxies at this redshift. Using stacking analysis, we find that the average density of $g$-dropout galaxies around quasars is slightly higher than that around $g$-dropout galaxies on $1.0 - 2.5$ pMpc scales, while at $ < 0.5$ pMpc that around quasars tends to be lower. We also find that quasars with higher UV-luminosity or with more massive black holes tend to avoid the most overdense regions, and that the quasar near zone sizes are anti-correlated with overdensity. These findings are consistent with a scenario in which the luminous quasar at $z \sim4 $ resides in structures that are less massive than those expected for the progenitors of today's rich clusters of galaxies, and possibly that luminous quasars may be suppressing star formation in their close vicinity., 15 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ special issue

We constrain the quasar contribution to cosmic reionization based on our deep optical survey of z~6 quasars down to z_R=24.15 using Subaru/Suprime-Cam in three UKIDSS-DXS fields covering 6.5 deg^2. In Kashikawa et al. (2015), we select 17 quasar candidates and report our initial discovery of two low-luminosity quasars (M_1450~ -23) from seven targets, one of which might be a Lyman alpha emitting galaxy. From an additional optical spectroscopy, none of the four candidates out of the remaining ten turn out to be genuine quasars. Moreover, the deeper optical photometry provided by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) shows that, unlike the two already-known quasars, the i-z and z-y colors of the last six candidates are consistent with M- or L-type brown dwarfs. Therefore, the quasar luminosity function (QLF) in the previous paper is confirmed. Compiling QLF measurements from the literature over a wide magnitude range, including an extremely faint AGN candidate from Parsa et al. (2017}, to fit them with a double power-law, we find that the best-fit faint-end slope is alpha=-2.04^+0.33_-0.18 (-1.98^+0.48_-0.21) and characteristic magnitude is M_1450^*=-25.8^+1.1_-1.9 (-25.7^+1.0_-1.8) in the case of two (one) quasar detection. Our result suggests that, if the QLF is integrated down to M_1450=-18, quasars produce ~1-12% of the ionizing photons required to ionize the whole universe at z~6 with 2sigma confidence level, assuming that the escape fraction is f_esc=1 and the IGM clumpy factor is C=3. Even when the systematic uncertainties are taken into account, our result supports the scenario that quasars are the minor contributors of reionization., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, ApJL accepted

FIRST program from the Japanese Cabinet Office; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST); Toray Science Foundation; NAOJ; Kavli IPMU; KEK; ASIAA; Princeton University; National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NNX08AR22G]; National Science Foundation [AST-1238877]; Ehime University; KAKENHI through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science [23244025, 15H02064]; World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan; Hayakawa Satio Fund - Astronomical Society of Japan

We discuss the host galaxy metallicity distribution of all long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) whose redshifts are known to be $< 0.4$, including newly obtained spectroscopic datasets of the host galaxies of GRB 060614, 090417B, and 130427A. We compare the metallicity distribution of the low-redshift sample to the model predictions, and constrain the relation between metallicity and GRB occurrence. We take account of spatial variation of metallicities among star forming regions within a galaxy. We found that the models, in which only low-metallicity stars produce GRBs with a sharp cutoff of GRB production efficiency around 12+log(O/H) $\sim$ 8.3, can well reproduce the observed distribution, while the models with no metallicity dependence are not consistent with the observations. We also discuss possible sampling biases we may suffer by collecting long GRBs whose redshifts are known, presenting the photometric observations of the host galaxy of GRB 111225A at $z = 0.297$ whose redshift has been undetermined until $\sim$ 2.3 years after the burst., Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables, accepted for publication in PASJ

We present the results of clustering analyses of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at $z\sim3$, $4$, and $5$ using the final data release of the Canada--France--Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS). Deep- and wide-field images of the CFHTLS Deep Survey enable us to obtain sufficiently accurate two-point angular correlation functions to apply a halo occupation distribution analysis. Mean halo masses, calculated as $\langle M_{h} \rangle=10^{11.7}-10^{12.8}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$, increase with stellar-mass limit of LBGs. The threshold halo mass to have a central galaxy follows the same increasing trend with the low-$z$ results, whereas the threshold halo mass to have a satellite galaxy shows higher values at $z=3-5$ than $z=0.5-1.5$ over the entire stellar mass range. Satellite fractions of dropout galaxies, even at less massive haloes, are found to drop sharply from $z=2$ down to less than $0.04$ at $z=3-5$. These results suggest that satellite galaxies form inefficiently within dark haloes at $z=3-5$ even for less massive satellites with $M_{\star}3$. In addition, $M_{{\rm h}}^{{\rm pivot}}$ and its normalization are found to be almost unchanged during $0, Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ

We present the results of clustering analysis on the $z \sim 2$ star-forming galaxies. By combining our data with data from publicly available archives, we collect $g$-, $\zb / z$-, and $K$-band imaging data over 5.2 deg$^{2}$, which represents the largest area BzK/gzK survey. We apply colour corrections to translate our filter-set to those used in the original BzK selection for the gzK selection. Because of the wide survey area, we obtain a sample of 41,112 star-forming gzK galaxies at $z \sim 2$ (sgzKs) down to $\KAB < 23.0$, and determine high-quality two-point angular correlation functions (ACFs). Our ACFs show an apparent excess from power-law behaviour at small angular scale $(��\la 0.01^{\circ})$, which corresponds the virial radius of a dark halo at $z \sim 2$ with a mass of $\sim 10^{13} \Msun$. We find that the correlation lengths are consistent with the previous estimates over all magnitude range; however, our results are evaluated with a smaller margin of error than that in previous studies. The large amount of data enables us to determine ACFs differentially depending on the luminosity of the subset of the data. The mean halo mass of faint sgzKs $(22.0 < K \leq 23.0)$ was found to be $\Mh = (1.32^{+0.09}_{-0.12}) \times 10^{12} h^{-1} \Msun$, whereas bright sgzKs ($18.0 \leq K \leq 21.0)$ were found to reside in dark haloes with a mass of $\Mh = (3.26^{+1.23}_{-1.02}) \times 10^{13} h^{-1} \Msun$., 15 pages, 12 figures, published in MNRAS

We present the discovery of one or two extremely faint z~6 quasars in 6.5 deg^2 utilizing a unique capability of the wide-field imaging of the Subaru/Suprime-Cam. The quasar selection was made in (i'-z_B) and (z_B-z_R) colors, where z_B and z_R are bandpasses with central wavelengths of 8842A and 9841A, respectively. The color selection can effectively isolate quasars at z~6 from M/L/T dwarfs without the J-band photometry down to z_R, 10 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Author(s): Toshikawa, J; Kashikawa, N; Overzier, R; Malkan, MA; Furusawa, H; Ishikawa, S; Onoue, M; Ota, K; Tanaka, M; Niino, Y; Uchiyama, H | Abstract: We present the discovery of three protoclusters at z ∼ 3-4 with spectroscopic confirmation in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep Fields. In these fields, we investigate the large-scale projected sky distribution of z ∼ 3-6 Lyman-break galaxies and identify 21 protocluster candidates from regions that are overdense at more than 4σ overdensity significance. Based on cosmological simulations, it is expected that more than 76% of these candidates will evolve into a galaxy cluster of at least a halo mass of 1014 M o at z = 0. We perform follow-up spectroscopy for eight of the candidates using Subaru/FOCAS, Keck II/DEIMOS, and Gemini-N/GMOS. In total we target 462 dropout candidates and obtain 138 spectroscopic redshifts. We confirm three real protoclusters at z = 3-4 with more than five members spectroscopically identified and find one to be an incidental overdense region by mere chance alignment. The other four candidate regions at z ∼ 5-6 require more spectroscopic follow-up in order to be conclusive. A z = 3.67 protocluster, which has 11 spectroscopically confirmed members, shows a remarkable core-like structure composed of a central small region (l0.5 physical Mpc) and an outskirts region (∼1.0 physical Mpc). The Lyα equivalent widths of members of the protocluster are significantly smaller than those of field galaxies at the same redshift, while there is no difference in the UV luminosity distributions. These results imply that some environmental effects start operating as early as at z ∼ 4 along with the growth of the protocluster structure. This study provides an important benchmark for our analysis of protoclusters in the upcoming Subaru/HSC imaging survey and its spectroscopic follow-up with the Subaru/PFS that will detect thousands of protoclusters up to z ∼ 6.

We performed a systematic spectroscopic observation of a protocluster at $z=6.01$ in the Subaru Deep Field. We took spectroscopy for all 53 $i'$-dropout galaxies down to $z'=27.09\,\mathrm{mag}$ in/around the protocluster region. From these observations, we confirmed that 28 galaxies are at $z\sim6$, of which ten are clustered in a narrow redshift range of $\Delta zMpc}$ of the overdense region can, with more than an 80% probability, merge into a single dark matter halo by $z=0$. No significant differences appeared in UV and Ly$\alpha$ luminosities between the protocluster and field galaxies, suggesting that this protocluster is still in the early phase of cluster formation before the onset of any obvious environmental effects. However, further observations are required to study other properties, such as stellar mass, dust, and age. We do find that galaxies tend to be in close pairs in this protocluster. These pair-like subgroups will coalesce into a single halo and grow into a more massive structure. We may witness an onset of cluster formation at $z\sim6$ toward a cluster as seen in local universe., Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We searched for star formation activity associated with high-z Damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) with Subaru telescope. We used a set of narrow-band (NB) filters whose central wavelengths correspond to the redshifted Lyman-alpha emission lines of targeted DLA absorbers at 3