A Photometric Study of Faint Galaxies in the Field of GRB 000926 T
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Astronomy Letters, Vol. 30, No. 5, 2004, pp. 283–292. Translated from Pis’ma vAstronomicheski˘ı Zhurnal, Vol. 30, No. 5, 2004, pp. 323–333. Original Russian Text Copyright c 2004 by Fatkhullin, Vasil’ev, Reshetnikov. A Photometric Study of Faint Galaxies in the Field of GRB 000926 T. A. Fatkhullin1*,A.A.Vasil’ev2, and V. P. Reshetnikov2** 1Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhni ˘ı Arkhyz, 357147 Karachai-Cherkessian Republic, Russia 2Astronomical Institute, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetski ˘ı pr. 28, Petrodvorets, 198504Russia Received September 30, 2003 Abstract—We present our B, V , Rc,andIc observations of a 3.6 × 3 field centered on the host galaxy h m s ◦ of GRB 000926( α2000.0 =17 04 11 , δ2000.0 =+51 47 9.8). The observations were carried out on the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope using the SCORPIO instrument. The catalog of galaxies detected in this field includes 264 objects for which the signal-to-noise ratio is larger than 5 in each photometric band. The following limiting magnitudes in the catalog correspond to this limitation: 26.6 (B), 25.7 (V ), 25.8 (R), and 24.5 (I). The differential galaxy counts are in good agreement with previously published CCD observations of deep fields. We estimated the photometric redshifts for all of the cataloged objects and studied the color variations of the galaxies with z. For luminous spiral galaxies with M(B) < −18, we found no evidence for any noticeable evolution of their linear sizes to z ∼ 1. c 2004MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica”. Key words: distant galaxies, photometric observations. INTRODUCTION years, investigators have increasingly pointed out that, with the accumulation of observational data, In recent years, significant progress has been GRBs with their afterglows and host galaxies are made in studying the properties and evolution of dis- becoming a useful tool in observational cosmology tant galaxies. An important role in this progress has (see, e.g., Djorgovski et al. 2003; Ramirez-Ruiz been played by detailed studies of several so-called et al. 2001; Trentham et al. 2002; and references deep fields—relatively small areas imaged (generally therein). Thus, a comparative analysis of the prop- in several color bands) with long exposure times. erties of GRB host galaxies with the properties of The best-known deep fields include the northern and galaxies at the same redshifts is now of relevant southern fields of the Hubble Space Telescope (Fer- interest. One of the methods for solving this problem guson et al. 2000), Subaru (Maihara et al. 2001), is to study the population of faint galaxies in the deep VLT FORS (Heidt et al. 2003), and the most recent fields of GRB host galaxies. and deepest (in the history of optical astronomy) survey conducted as part of the GOODS (Great OBSERVATIONS AND THEIR REDUCTION Observatories Origins Deep Survey) project with the Hubble Space Telescope (Giavalisco et al. 2003). We carried out our photometric observations of In addition to surveys covering an appreciable part the field of the host galaxy of GRB 000926on of the sky (2MASS, 2dF, SDSS, and others), but July 24 and 25, 2001, using the 6-m SAO tele- limited to relatively low redshifts (z ≤ 0.3), deep fields scope. The observing conditions were photomet- allow the properties of high z galaxies to be studied ric with 1.3-arcsec seeing, measured as the full and provide information about the evolution of the width at half maximum (FWHM) of the images of integrated parameters of galaxies. starlike objects in the field. The field was centered on the coordinates of the host galaxy α2000.0 = Our primary objective was to study in detail the h m s ◦ faint galaxies distinguished in the deep field obtained 17 04 11 and δ2000.0 =+51 47 9.8, which corre- spond to the Galactic latitude and longitude b = with the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory ◦ ◦ (SAO) telescope as part of our program of optical 37 21 and l =77 45 , respectively. According to the identification of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). In recent infrared maps taken from the paper by Schlegel et al. (1998), the Galactic reddening toward the field *E-mail: [email protected] being studied is E(B–V )=0.023. In our obser- **E-mail: [email protected] vations, we used the SCORPIO (Spectral Camera 1063-7737/04/3005-0283$26.00 c 2004 MAIK “Nauka/Interperiodica” 284 FATKHULLIN et al. EN Fig. 1. Reproduction of the field of GRB 000926. The field sizes are 3.6 × 3 . with Optical Reducer for Photometrical and In- frames taken in one color band were coadded. The terferometrical Observations; for a description, see coadded frames were reduced to the same orientation http://www.sao.ru/moisav/scorpio/scorpio.html) in- and to a single coordinate system. The sizes of the region where the coadded images overlapped in all strument mounted at the prime focus of the 6-m SAO telescope. The detector was a TK1024 1024 × bands were 3.6 × 3 . This region was used for the 1024 CCD array. The pixel size was 24 µm, which subsequent analysis (Fig. 1). corresponded to an angular scale of 0.289 per pixel. The CCD response curve and the SCORPIO broad- LARGE-SCALE PHOTOMETRY band filters reproduced a photometric system close OF OBJECTS IN THE FIELD to the standard Johnson–Cousins BV RcIc sys- Extracting Objects tem (Bessel 1990). We took five frames in each of the B and V bands with total exposure times We used the SExtractor (Source Extractor) (Bertin s s of 2500 and 1500 , respectively; ten frames in Rc and Arnouts 1996) package to extract objects in the s s field and to perform their photometry. This package (1800 ); and fifteen frames in Ic (1800 ). The absolute photometric calibration of the data was performed is unique in that it allows us to extract objects using the observations of standard stars from the and construct their isophotes on one image and to lists by Landolt (1992) and Stetson (accessible calculate the fluxes within these isophotes on another at http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/cadcbin/wdb/astro- image. Thus, we can determine the fluxes in all bands for a given object within the same region of the image. cat/stetson/query) on the same nights. On the other hand, this technique makes it possible The primary data reduction was performed using to find all of the objects in the field from its common the ESO-MIDAS software package.1 It included de- image for all bands, which allows problems with the identification of the same object in different bands to biasing, flat fielding, defringing in Rc and Ic,and cosmic-ray hit removal (for a detailed description, be avoided. see the dissertation by Fatkhullin 2003). All of the There are several methods for constructing a com- mon image (i.e., the detection field). For example, the 1This package is supported and distributed by the European field obtained by coadding the frames in different color Southern Observatory. bands is often used to extract objects. We used a ASTRONOMY LETTERS Vol. 30 No. 5 2004 A PHOTOMETRIC STUDY 285 relatively new method, that of constructing a χ2-field. near the image boundaries and in two regions around The χ2-field is a common image for all bands, and it very bright objects (an overexposed star and a large is used to extract objects and to construct a common interacting system of galaxies). Thus, slightly more catalog of objects for all bands. The idea of the method than 400 objects remained. is that probabilistic methods are used to analyze the To increase the reliability of the subsequent anal- distribution of image pixel values and to determine ysis, we included in the final catalog only those the optimum detection limit for objects above the objects for which the signal-to-noise ratio was larger background level (Szalay et al. 1999). than 5 in each band. There were 285 such objects. Schematically, the process of constructing the The following limiting magnitudes in the catalog χ2-field can be described as follows. The mean corresponded to this limitation: 26.6 (B), 25.7 (V ), and rms deviation (σb) of the sky background (the 25.8 (R), and 24.5 (I). distribution of sky background values is assumed For each object, we determined the total appar- to be Gaussian) are determined from the images in ent magnitudes and the corresponding color indices each color band. Subsequently, the corresponding using the so-called best magnitudes generated by background value is subtracted from each image, and the SExtractor package. These values are the best the resulting frame is divided by σb. As a result, we fits to the asymptotic magnitudes of extended objects obtain a transformed image for each band in which the (Bertin and Arnouts 1996). sky background is specified by a Gaussian with a zero The SExtractor package allows the objects to be mean and a unit variance. If we consider the combined separated into starlike and extended ones by assign- transformed images, each pixel of the common field ing a corresponding starlikeness index from 0 (ex- may be represented as a vector with the number of tended) to 1 (star) to each of them. For the sub- elements equal to the number of bands. The resulting 2 sequent analysis, we selected only those objects for χ -field is an image, each pixel of which is equal to which the starlikeness index was less than 0.7 in B (in the square of the length of the corresponding vector this band, the stellar disks and spiral arms of galaxies of the common field.