Stellar Masses from the CANDELS Survey: The GOODS-South and UDS Fields

Authors

P. Santini, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
H. C. Ferguson, Space Telescope Science Institute
A. Fontana, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
B. Mobasher, University of California - Riverside
G. Barro, University of California - Santa Cruz
M. Castellano, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
S. L. Finkelstein, University of Texas at Austin
A. Grazian, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
L. T. Hsu, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany
B. Lee, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
S.-K. Lee, Seoul National University, Korea
J. Pforr, National Optical Astronomy Observatories
M. Salvato, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany
T. Wiklind, Joing ALMA Observatory, Chile
S. Wuyts, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany
O. Almaini, University of Nottingham, UK
M. C. Cooper, University of California - Irvine
A. Galametz, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Germany
B. Weiner, University of Arizona
R. Amorin, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
K. Boutsia, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
C. J. Conselice, University of Nottingham, UK
T. Dahlen, Space Telescope Science Institute
M. E. Dickinson, National Optical Astronomy Observatories
M. Giavalisco, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
N. A. Grogin, Space Telescope Science Institute
Y. Guo, University of California - Santa Cruz
N. P. Hathi, Aix Marseille Université, France
Dale D. Kocevski, University of KentuckyFollow
A. M. Koekemoer, Space Telescope Science Institute
P. Kurczynski, Rutgers University
E. Merlin, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
A. Mortlock, University of Edinburgh, UK
J. A. Newman, University of Pittsburgh
D. Paris, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
L. Pentericci, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy
R. Simons, Johns Hopkins University
S. P. Willner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Abstract

We present the public release of the stellar mass catalogs for the GOODS-S and UDS fields obtained using some of the deepest near-IR images available, achieved as part of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey project. We combine the effort from 10 different teams, who computed the stellar masses using the same photometry and the same redshifts. Each team adopted their preferred fitting code, assumptions, priors, and parameter grid. The combination of results using the same underlying stellar isochrones reduces the systematics associated with the fitting code and other choices. Thanks to the availability of different estimates, we can test the effect of some specific parameters and assumptions on the stellar mass estimate. The choice of the stellar isochrone library turns out to have the largest effect on the galaxy stellar mass estimates, resulting in the largest distributions around the median value (with a semi interquartile range larger than 0.1 dex). On the other hand, for most galaxies, the stellar mass estimates are relatively insensitive to the different parameterizations of the star formation history. The inclusion of nebular emission in the model spectra does not have a significant impact for the majority of galaxies (less than a factor of 2 for ~80% of the sample). Nevertheless, the stellar mass for the subsample of young galaxies (age <100 >Myr), especially in particular redshift ranges (e.g., 2.2 < z < 2.4, 3.2 < z < 3.6, and 5.5 < z < 6.5), can be seriously overestimated (by up to a factor of 10 for <20 Myr sources) if nebular contribution is ignored.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-11-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v. 801, no. 2, article 97, p. 1-17.

© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Reproduced by permission of the AAS.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/801/2/97

Funding Information

P.S., A.F., M.C., R.A., K.B. and E.M. acknowledge the contribution of the EC FP7 SPACE project ASTRODEEP (Ref.No: 312725). P.S. also acknowledges the grant ASI I/005/11/0. S.L. acknowledges the support by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant, No. 2008-0060544, funded by the Korea government (MSIP). This work is based in part on observations (program GO-12060) made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is also based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407.

Related Content

This work is based in part on observations (program GO-12060) made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is also based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407. This work uses data from the following ESO programs: 60.A-9284, 181.A0717, LP 186.A-0898 and 085.A-0961.

Repository Citation

Santini, P.; Ferguson, H. C.; Fontana, A.; Mobasher, B.; Barro, G.; Castellano, M.; Finkelstein, S. L.; Grazian, A.; Hsu, L. T.; Lee, B.; Lee, S.-K.; Pforr, J.; Salvato, M.; Wiklind, T.; Wuyts, S.; Almaini, O.; Cooper, M. C.; Galametz, A.; Weiner, B.; Amorin, R.; Boutsia, K.; Conselice, C. J.; Dahlen, T.; Dickinson, M. E.; Giavalisco, M.; Grogin, N. A.; Guo, Y.; Hathi, N. P.; Kocevski, Dale D.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Kurczynski, P.; Merlin, E.; Mortlock, A.; Newman, J. A.; Paris, D.; Pentericci, L.; Simons, R.; and Willner, S. P., "Stellar Masses from the CANDELS Survey: The GOODS-South and UDS Fields" (2015). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 261.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/261