Starburst galaxies and structure in the submillimetre background towards the Hubble Deep Field

We use an 850-μm SCUBA map of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) to study the dust properties of optically-selected starburst galaxies at high redshift. The optical/infrared (IR) data in the HDF allow a photometric redshift to be estimated for each galaxy, together with an estimate of the visible star-formation rate. The 850-μm flux density of each source provides the complementary information: the amount of hidden, dust-enshrouded star formation activity. Although the 850-μm map does not allow detection of the majority of individual sources, we show that the galaxies with the highest UV star-formation rates are detected statistically, with a flux density of about S ₈₅₀=0.2 mJy for an apparent UV star-formation rate of 1  h ⁻² M_⊙ yr⁻¹. This level of submillimetre output indicates that the total star-forming activity is on average a factor of approximately 6 times larger than the rate inferred from the UV output of these galaxies. The general population of optical starbursts is then predicted to contribute at least 25 per cent of the 850-μm background. We carry out a power-spectrum analysis of the map, which yields some evidence for angular clustering of the background source population, but at a level lower than that seen in Lyman-break galaxies. Together with other lines of argument, particularly from the NICMOS HDF data, this suggests that the 850-μm background originates over an extremely wide range of redshifts – perhaps 1≲ z ≲6.     

Composition,stability, and measurement of reduced uranium phases for groundwater bioremediation at Old Rifle,CO

Reductive biostimulation is currently being explored as a possible remediation strategy for U-contaminated groundwater, and is being investigated at a field site in Rifle, CO, USA. The long-term stability of the resulting U(IV) phases is a key component of the overall performance of the remediation approach and depends upon a variety of factors, including rate and mechanism of reduction, mineral associations in the subsurface, and propensity for oxidation. To address these factors, several approaches were used to evaluate the redox sensitivity of U: (1) measurement of the rate of oxidative dissolution of biogenic uraninite (UO_2(s)) deployed in groundwater at Rifle, (2) characterization of a zone of natural bioreduction exhibiting relevant reduced mineral phases, and (3) laboratory studies of the oxidative capacity of Fe(III) and reductive capacity of Fe(II) with regard to U(IV) and U(VI), respectively.     

The final two redshifts for radio sources from the equatorial BRL sample

Best, Röttgering & Lehnert (BRL) defined a new sample of powerful radio sources from the Molonglo Reference Catalogue, for which redshifts were compiled or measured for 177 of the 178 objects. For the final object, MRC1059−010 (3C 249), the host galaxy is identified here using near-infrared imaging, and the redshift is determined from Very Large Telescope (VLT) spectroscopy. For one other object in the sample, MRC0320+053 (4C05.14), the literature redshift has been questioned: new spectroscopic observations of this object are presented, deriving a corrected redshift. With these two results, the spectroscopic completeness of this sample is now 100 per cent.
New redshifts are also presented for PKS0742+10 from the Wall & Peacock 2.7-GHz catalogue, and for PKS1336+003 from the Parkes Selected Regions. PKS0742+10 shows a strong neutral hydrogen absorption feature in its Lyman α emission profile.     

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: galaxy luminosity functions per spectral type

We calculate the optical b _J luminosity function (LF) of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS) for different subsets defined by their spectral properties. These spectrally selected subsets are defined using a new parameter, η , which is a linear combination of the first two projections derived from a Principal Component Analysis. This parameter η identifies the average emission- and absorption-line strength in the galaxy rest frame spectrum, and hence is a useful indicator of the present star formation. We use a total of 75 000 galaxies in our calculations, chosen from a sample of high signal-to-noise ratio, low-redshift galaxies observed before 2001 January. We find that there is a systematic steepening of the faint-end slope ( α ) as one moves from passive  ( α =-0.54)  to active  ( α =-1.50)  star-forming galaxies, and that there is also a corresponding faintening of the rest frame characteristic magnitude   M *-5 log₁₀( h )  (from −19.6 to −19.2). We also show that the Schechter function provides a poor fit to the quiescent (Type 1) LF for very faint galaxies  [ M _{b J}-5 log₁₀( h )  fainter than −16.0], perhaps suggesting the presence of a significant dwarf population. The LFs presented here give a precise confirmation of the trends seen previously in a much smaller preliminary 2dFGRS sample, and in other surveys. We also present a new procedure for determining self-consistent k -corrections, and investigate possible fibre-aperture biases.     

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and spectral type

We investigate the dependence of galaxy clustering on luminosity and spectral type using the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS). Spectral types are assigned using the principal-component analysis of Madgwick et al. We divide the sample into two broad spectral classes: galaxies with strong emission lines ('late types') and more quiescent galaxies ('early types'). We measure the clustering in real space, free from any distortion of the clustering pattern owing to peculiar velocities, for a series of volume-limited samples. The projected correlation functions of both spectral types are well described by a power law for transverse separations in the range  2<( σ / h ^-1 Mpc)<15  , with a marginally steeper slope for early types than late types. Both early and late types have approximately the same dependence of clustering strength on luminosity, with the clustering amplitude increasing by a factor of ∼2.5 between L * and 4 L *. At all luminosities, however, the correlation function amplitude for the early types is ∼50 per cent higher than that of the late types. These results support the view that luminosity, and not type, is the dominant factor in determining how the clustering strength of the whole galaxy population varies with luminosity.     

An ultradeep submillimetre map: beneath the SCUBA confusion limit with lensing and robust source extraction

Extracting sources with low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) from maps with structured background is a non-trivial task which has become important in studying the faint end of the submillimetre (submm) number counts. In this paper, we study the source extraction from submm jiggle-maps from the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) using the Mexican hat wavelet (MHW), an isotropic wavelet technique. As a case study, we use a large (11.8-arcmin²) jiggle-map of the galaxy cluster Abell 2218 (A2218), with a 850-μm 1σ rms sensitivity of 0.6–1 mJy. We show via simulations that MHW is a powerful tool for the reliable extraction of low-S/N sources from the SCUBA jiggle-maps and nine sources are detected in the A2218 850-μm image. Three of these sources are identified as images of a single background source with an unlensed flux of 0.8 mJy. Further, two single-imaged sources also have unlensed fluxes <2 mJy, below the blank-field confusion limit. In this ultradeep map, the individual sources detected resolve nearly all of the extragalactic background light at 850 μm, and the deep data allow to put an upper limit of 44 sources arcmin⁻² to 0.2 mJy at 850 μm.