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Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) studies have revealed a significant discrepancy between direct measurements -- via instruments measuring "bare" sky from which Zodiacal and Galactic light models are subtracted -- and measurements of the Integrated Galaxy Light (IGL). This discrepancy could lie in either method, whether it be an incomplete Zodiacal model or missed faint galaxies in the IGL calculations. It has been proposed that the discrepancy is due to deep galaxy surveys, such as those with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), missing up to half of the faint galaxies with $24 \le m_{AB} \le 29$ mag. We address this possibility by simulating higher number densities of galaxies, and so assess incompleteness due to object overlap, with three replications of the Hubble UltraDeep Field (HUDF). SourceExtractor is used to compare the recovered counts and photometry to the original HUDF, allowing us to assess how many galaxies may have been missed due to confusion, i.e., due to blending with neighboring faint galaxies. This exercise reveals that, while up to 50% of faint galaxies with $28 \le m_{AB} \le 29$ mag were missed or blended with neighboring objects in certain filters, not enough were missed to account for the EBL discrepancy alone in any of the replications., 12 pages, 5 figures. This version includes edits made according to the anonymous referee's comments. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

We explore how the fraction of quenched galaxies changes in groups of galaxies with respect to the distance to the center of the group, redshift, and stellar mass to determine the dominant process of environmental quenching in 0.2 < z < 0.8 groups. We use new UV data from the UVCANDELS project in addition to existing multiband photometry to derive new galaxy physical properties of the group galaxies from the zCOSMOS 20 k group catalog. Limiting our analysis to a complete sample of log (M */M ⊙) > 10.56 group galaxies, we find that the probability of being quenched increases slowly with decreasing redshift, diverging from the stagnant field galaxy population. A corresponding analysis on how the probability of being quenched increases with time within groups suggests that the dominant environmental quenching process is characterized by slow (∼Gyr) timescales. We find a quenching time of approximately 4.91 − 1.47 + 0.91 Gyr, consistent with the slow processes of strangulation and delayed-then-rapid quenching although more data are needed to confirm this result.

We give an overview and describe the rationale, methods, and first results from NIRCam images of the JWST "Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science" ("PEARLS") project. PEARLS uses up to eight NIRCam filters to survey several prime extragalactic survey areas: two fields at the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP); seven gravitationally lensing clusters; two high redshift proto-clusters; and the iconic backlit VV 191 galaxy system to map its dust attenuation. PEARLS also includes NIRISS spectra for one of the NEP fields and NIRSpec spectra of two high-redshift quasars. The main goal of PEARLS is to study the epoch of galaxy assembly, AGN growth, and First Light. Five fields, the JWST NEP Time-Domain Field (TDF), IRAC Dark Field (IDF), and three lensing clusters, will be observed in up to four epochs over a year. The cadence and sensitivity of the imaging data are ideally suited to find faint variable objects such as weak AGN, high-redshift supernovae, and cluster caustic transits. Both NEP fields have sightlines through our Galaxy, providing significant numbers of very faint brown dwarfs whose proper motions can be studied. Observations from the first spoke in the NEP TDF are public. This paper presents our first PEARLS observations, their NIRCam data reduction and analysis, our first object catalogs, the 0.9-4.5 $\mu$m galaxy counts and Integrated Galaxy Light. We assess the JWST sky brightness in 13 NIRCam filters, yielding our first constraints to diffuse light at 0.9-4.5 {\mu}m. PEARLS is designed to be of lasting benefit to the community., Comment: Accepted to AJ, comments welcome. We ask anyone who uses our public PEARLS (NEP TDF) data to refer to this overview paper

We give an overview and describe the rationale, methods, and testing of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Archival Legacy project "SKYSURF." SKYSURF uses HST's unique capability as an absolute photometer to measure the ~0.2-1.7 $\mu$m sky surface brightness (SB) from 249,861 WFPC2, ACS, and WFC3 exposures in ~1400 independent HST fields. SKYSURF's panchromatic dataset is designed to constrain the discrete and diffuse UV to near-IR sky components: Zodiacal Light (ZL; inner Solar System), Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs; outer Solar System), Diffuse Galactic Light (DGL), and the discrete plus diffuse Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). We outline SKYSURF's methods to: (1) measure sky-SB levels between its detected objects; (2) measure the integrated discrete EBL, most of which comes from AB$\simeq$17-22 mag galaxies; and (3) estimate how much diffuse light may exist in addition to the extrapolated discrete galaxy counts. Simulations of HST WFC3/IR images with known sky-values and gradients, realistic cosmic ray (CR) distributions, and star plus galaxy counts were processed with nine different algorithms to measure the "Lowest Estimated Sky-SB" (LES) in each image between the discrete objects. The best algorithms recover the inserted LES values within 0.2% when there are no image gradients, and within 0.2-0.4% when there are 5-10% gradients. SKYSURF requires non-standard re-processing of these HST images that includes restoring the lowest sky-level from each visit into each drizzled image. We provide a proof of concept of our methods from the WFC3/IR F125W images, where any residual diffuse light that HST sees in excess of the Kelsall et al. (1998) Zodiacal model prediction does not depend on the total object flux that each image contains. This enables us to present our first SKYSURF results on diffuse light in Carleton et al. (2022)., Comment: Accepted to AJ; see accompanying paper Carleton et al. 2022: arXiv:2205.06347. Comments welcome!

We present the results from a new search for candidate galaxies at z ~ 8.5-11 discovered over the 850 arcmin^2 area probed by the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). We use a photometric redshift selection including both Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope photometry to robustly identify galaxies in this epoch at F160W < 26.6. We use a detailed vetting procedure, including screening for persistence, stellar contamination, inclusion of ground-based imaging, and followup space-based imaging to build a robust sample of 11 candidate galaxies, three presented here for the first time. The inclusion of Spitzer/IRAC photometry in the selection process reduces contamination, and yields more robust redshift estimates than Hubble alone. We constrain the evolution of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity function via a new method of calculating the observed number densities without choosing a prior magnitude bin size. We find that the abundance at our brightest probed luminosities (M_UV=-22.3) is consistent with predictions from simulations which assume that galaxies in this epoch have gas depletion times at least as short as those in nearby starburst galaxies. Due to large Poisson and cosmic variance uncertainties we cannot conclusively rule out either a smooth evolution of the luminosity function continued from z=4-8, or an accelerate decline at z > 8. We calculate that the presence of seven galaxies in a single field (EGS) is an outlier at the 2-sigma significance level, implying the discovery of a significant overdensity. These scenarios will be imminently testable to high confidence within the first year of observations of the James Webb Space Telescope., 47 figures, 25 pages, 10 tables, Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal. Photometric catalogs available via email request to lead author

We apply Bayesian statistics with prior probabilities of galaxy surface luminosity (SL) to improve photometric redshifts. We apply the method to a sample of 1266 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts in the GOODS North and South fields at 0.1 < z < 2.0. We start with spectrophotometric redshifts (SPZs) based on Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically grism spectra, which cover a wavelength range of 6000-9000A, combined with (U)BViz(JHK) broadband photometry in the GOODS fields. The accuracy of SPZ redshifts is estimated to be \sigma (\Delta(z))=0.035 with an systematic offset of -0.026, where \Delta(z)=\Delta z / (1+z), for galaxies in redshift range of 0.5 < z < 1.25. The addition of the SL prior probability helps break the degeneracy of SPZ redshifts between low redshift 4000 A break galaxies and high-redshift Lyman break galaxies which are mostly catastrophic outliers. For the 1138 galaxies at z < 1.6, the fraction of galaxies with redshift deviation \Delta (z) > 0.2 is reduced from 15.0% to 10.4%, while the rms scatter of the fractional redshift error does not change much., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, published in AJ

We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of redshift four and five Lyman break galaxies to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the GRAPES (Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science) and PEARS (Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically) projects, using the G800L grism on the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, pre-selected as candidate Lyman break galaxies using photometric selection criteria. We compare a "traditional" V-dropout selection to a more liberal one (with V-i > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Lyman alpha emission properties of our sample. We find that Lyman alpha emission is detected in about 1/4 of the sample, and that our broad-band color selected sample includes 55% of previously published line-selected Lyman alpha sources. Finally, we examine our stacked 2D spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended (arcsecond scale) Lyman alpha emission is not a generic property of these Lyman break galaxies, but that a modest extension of the Lyman alpha photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Lyman alpha emission.

We describe a possible new class of X-ray sources that have robust detections in ultra-deep Chandra data, yet have no detections at all in our deep multi-band GOODS Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS images, which represent the highest quality optical imaging obtained to date on these fields. These extreme X-ray / Optical ratio sources ("EXO"s) have values of Fx/Fopt at least an order of magnitude above those generally found for other AGN, even those that are harbored by reddened hosts. We thus infer two possible scenarios: (1) if these sources lie at redshifts z < 6, then their hosts need to be exceedingly underluminous, or more reddened, compared with other known sources; (2) if these sources lie above z ~ 6-7, such that even their Lyman-alpha emission is redshifted out of the bandpass of our ACS z(850) filter, then their optical and X-ray fluxes can be accounted for in terms of relatively normal L* hosts and moderate-luminosity AGN., AASTEX-Latex, 12 pages, 3 figures, including 1 jpg figure. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 447 (1), ISSN:0035-8711, ISSN:1365-2966, ISSN:1365-8711

We have undertaken an ambitious program to visually classify all galaxies in the five CANDELS fields down to H, 15 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series For access to data tables prior to publication contact jeyhan@astro.rit.edu

Cosmic strings were postulated by Kibble in 1976 and, from a theoretical point of view, their existence finds support in modern superstring theories, both in compactification models and in theories with extended additional dimensions. Their eventual discovery would lead to significant advances in both cosmology and fundamental physics. One of the most effective ways to detect cosmic strings is through their lensing signatures which appear to be significantly different from those introduced by standard lenses (id est, compact clumps of matter). In 2003, the discovery of the peculiar object CSL-1 (Sazhin et al.2003) raised the interest of the physics community since its morphology and spectral features strongly argued in favour of it being the first case of gravitational lensing by a cosmic string. In this paper we provide a detailed description of the expected observational effects of a cosmic string and show, by means of simulations, the lensing signatures produced on background galaxies. While high angular resolution images obtained with HST, revealed that CSL-1 is a pair of interacting ellipticals at redshift 0.46, it represents a useful lesson to plan future surveys., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, in press on MNRAS. Replaced with accepted version

Using U'- through Ks-band imaging data in the GOODS-South field, we construct a large, complete sample of 275 ``extremely red objects'' (EROs; K_s3.35; AB), all with deep HST/ACS imaging in B_435, V_606, i_775, and z_850, and well-calibrated photometric redshifts. Quantitative concentration and asymmetry measurements fail to separate EROs into distinct morphological classes. We therefore visually classify the morphologies of all EROs into four broad types: ``Early'' (elliptical-like), ``Late'' (disk galaxies), ``Irregular'' and ``Other'' (chain galaxies and low surface brightness galaxies), and calculate their relative fractions and comoving space densities. For a broad range of limiting magnitudes and color thresholds, the relative number of early-type EROs is approximately constant at 33-44%, and the comoving space densities of Early- and Late-type EROs are comparable. Mean rest-frame spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at wavelengths between 0.1 and 1.2 um are constructed for all EROs. The SEDs are extremely similar in their range of shapes, independent of morphological type. The implication is that any differences between the broad-band SEDs of Early-type EROs and the other types are relatively subtle, and there is no robust way of photometrically distinguishing between different morphological types with usual optical/near-infrared photometry., Submitted to the ApJL. A version with full-resolution figures, all GOODS data and all GOODS collaboration papers may be found at http://www.stsci.edu/science/goods/

We present observations of a luminous galaxy at redshift z=6.573 --- the end of the reioinization epoch --- which has been spectroscopically confirmed twice. The first spectroscopic confirmation comes from slitless HST ACS grism spectra from the PEARS survey (Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically), which show a dramatic continuum break in the spectrum at restframe 1216 A wavelength. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Lyman alpha emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at redshift z=4.5. The Lyman alpha line profile shows no signature of a damping wing attenuation, confirming that the intergalactic gas is ionized at redshift z=6.57. Spectra of Lyman breaks at yet higher redshifts will be possible using comparably deep observations with IR-sensitive grisms, even at redshifts where Lyman alpha is too attenuated by the neutral IGM to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.