BzKs in GOODS-N : z~2 star forming galaxies

• Main Author: Meger, Nicole
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7581

This thesis presents new deep near-infrared imaging data in one of the most well studied regions of the sky, the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey's northern field (GOODS-N). In particular, we have produced a science grade Ks-band (2.2 μm) source catalogue with a depth of KS(AB) = 23.8 magnitudes. With our K-selected sample, we use the BzK two-colour se lection criterion to find galaxies lying at redshifts between 1.4 and 2.5. We investigate the redshift distribution of these BzKs using spectroscopic redshifts as well as a new photometric redshift catalogue and find respectively, 13% and 14% contamination from low redshift interlopers. We then com pare the relationship between star formation rate and stellar mass with three different star formation rate estimators, derived from the rest-frame ultra violet, mid-infrared and radio properties. We obtain similar relationships from each of these methods and discuss the inherent uncertainty in estimat ing high redshift star formation rates. Finally, we test the BzK selection method with two extreme z~2 galaxy populations. The BzK criterion is able to select submillimetre galaxies at redshifts from 1.4 to 2.5 even though they have extreme star formation rates, and it can also effectively select highly dust obscured galaxies. === Science, Faculty of === Physics and Astronomy, Department of === Graduate