Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) : motivation, design and target catalogue

Davies, L. J. M.; Robotham, A. S. G.; Driver, S. P.; Lagos, C. P.; Cortese, L.; Mannering, E.; Foster, C.; Lidman, C.; Hashemizadeh, A.; Koushan, S.; O'Toole, S.; Baldry, I. K.; Bilicki, M.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Bremer, M. N.; Brown, M. J. I.; Bryant, J. J.; Catinella, B.; Croom, S. M.; Grootes, M. W.; Holwerda, B. W.; Jarvis, M. J.; Maddox, N.; Meyer, M.; Moffett, A. J.; Phillipps, S.; Taylor, E. N.; Windhorst, R. A.; Wolf, C.

Abstract

The Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) is a large spectroscopic campaign at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) aimed at bridging the near and distant Universe by producing the highest completeness survey of galaxies and groups at intermediate redshifts (0.3 < z < 1.0). Our sample consists of ∼60,000 galaxies to Y<21.2 mag, over ∼6 deg2 in three well-studied deep extragalactic fields (Cosmic Origins Survey field, COSMOS, Extended Chandra Deep Field South, ECDFS and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission Large-Scale Structure region, XMM-LSS - all Large Synoptic Survey Telescope deep-drill fields). This paper presents the broad experimental design of DEVILS. Our target sample has been selected from deep Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Y-band imaging (VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations, VIDEO and UltraVISTA), with photometry measured by ProFound. Photometric star/galaxy separation is done on the basis of NIR colours, and has been validated by visual inspection. To maximise our observing efficiency for faint targets we employ a redshift feedback strategy, which continually updates our target lists, feeding back the results from the previous night’s observations. We also present an overview of the initial spectroscopic observations undertaken in late 2017 and early 2018.

Citation

Davies , L J M , Robotham , A S G , Driver , S P , Lagos , C P , Cortese , L , Mannering , E , Foster , C , Lidman , C , Hashemizadeh , A , Koushan , S , O'Toole , S , Baldry , I K , Bilicki , M , Bland-Hawthorn , J , Bremer , M N , Brown , M J I , Bryant , J J , Catinella , B , Croom , S M , Grootes , M W , Holwerda , B W , Jarvis , M J , Maddox , N , Meyer , M , Moffett , A J , Phillipps , S , Taylor , E N , Windhorst , R A & Wolf , C 2018 , ' Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) : motivation, design and target catalogue ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 480 , no. 1 , pp. 768–799 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1553

Publication

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Status

Peer reviewed

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1553

ISSN

0035-8711

Type

Journal article

Rights

© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1553

Collections

University of St Andrews Research

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14595

St Andrews Research Repository