The VLT LEGA-C Spectroscopic Survey: The Physics of Galaxies at a Lookback Time of 7 Gyr
van der Wel, A. · Noeske, K. · Bezanson, R. · Pacifici, C. · Gallazzi, A. · Franx, M. · Munoz-Mateos, J. C. · Bell, E. F. · Brammer, G. · Charlot, S. · Chauke, P. · Labbe, I. · Maseda, M. V. · Muzzin, A. · Rix, H. -W. · Sobral, D. · van de Sande, J. · van Dokkum, P. G. · Wild, V. · Wolf, C.
Original · EN
The Large Early Galaxy Census (LEGA-C) is a Public Spectroscopic Survey of 3200 K-band selected galaxies at redshifts z=0.6-1.0 with stellar masses Mₛtar > 1e10Mₛun, conducted with VIMOS on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The survey is embedded in the COSMOS field (R.A. = 10h00; Dec.=+2°). The 20-hour long integrations produce high-S/N continuum spectra that reveal ages, metallicities and velocity dispersions of the stellar populations. LEGA-C's unique combination of sample size and depth will enable us for the first time to map the stellar content at large look-back time, across galaxies of different types and star-formation activity. Observations started in December 2014 and are planned to be completed by mid 2018, with early data releases of the spectra and value-added products. In this paper we present the science case, the observing strategy, an overview of the data reduction process and data products, and a first look at the relationship between galaxy structure and spectral properties, as it existed 7 Gyr ago.
English translation
This paper has no Arabic translation yet. Be the first: it takes a few seconds, and the result is stored for every future reader.