1. An Ultra Deep Field survey with WFIRST
- Author
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Koekemoer, Anton M, Foley, RJ, Spergel, DN, Bagley, M, Bezanson, R, Bianco, FB, Bouwens, R, Bradley, L, Brammer, G, Capak, P, Davidzon, I, Rosa, G De, Dickinson, ME, Doré, O, Dunlop, JS, Ellis, RS, Fan, X, Fazio, GG, Ferguson, HC, Filippenko, AV, Finkelstein, S, Frye, B, Gawiser, E, Grogin, NA, Hathi, NP, Hirata, CM, Hounsell, R, Illingworth, GD, Jansen, RA, Jauzac, M, Jha, SW, Kartaltepe, JS, Kim, AG, Kelly, P, Kruk, JW, Larson, R, Lotz, J, Lucas, R, Malhotra, S, Mandel, K, Margutti, R, Marrone, D, McLure, RJ, McQuinn, K, Melchior, P, Mobasher, B, Mould, JR, Moustakas, L, Newman, JA, Papovich, C, Peeples, MS, Perlmutter, S, Pirzkal, N, Rhoads, J, Rhodes, J, Robertson, B, Rubin, D, Ryan, R, Scolnic, D, Shapley, A, Somerville, R, Steinhardt, C, Stiavelli, M, Street, R, Trenti, M, Treu, T, Wang, L, Wang, Y, Whalen, D, Windhorst, RA, Wollack, EJ, and Yan, H
- Subjects
astro-ph.GA - Abstract
Studying the formation and evolution of galaxies at the earliest cosmictimes, and their role in reionization, requires the deepest imaging possible.Ultra-deep surveys like the HUDF and HFF have pushed to mag \mAB$\,\sim\,$30,revealing galaxies at the faint end of the LF to $z$$\,\sim\,$9$\,-\,$11 andconstraining their role in reionization. However, a key limitation of thesefields is their size, only a few arcminutes (less than a Mpc at theseredshifts), too small to probe large-scale environments or clusteringproperties of these galaxies, crucial for advancing our understanding ofreionization. Achieving HUDF-quality depth over areas $\sim$100 times largerbecomes possible with a mission like the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope(WFIRST), a 2.4-m telescope with similar optical properties to HST, with afield of view of $\sim$1000 arcmin$^2$, $\sim$100$\times$ the area of theHST/ACS HUDF. This whitepaper motivates an Ultra-Deep Field survey with WFIRST, covering$\sim$100$\,-\,$300$\times$ the area of the HUDF, or up to $\sim$1 deg$^2$, to\mAB$\,\sim\,$30, potentially revealing thousands of galaxies and AGN at thefaint end of the LF, at or beyond $z$\,$\sim$\,9$\,-\,$10 in the epoch ofreionization, and tracing their LSS environments, dramatically increasing thediscovery potential at these redshifts. (Note: This paper is a somewhat expanded version of one that was submitted asinput to the Astro2020 Decadal Survey, with this version including an Appendix(which exceeded the Astro2020 page limits), describing how the science driversfor a WFIRST Ultra Deep Field might map into a notional observing program,including the filters used and exposure times needed to achieve these depths.)
- Published
- 2019