Issue |
A&A
Volume 566, June 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A108 | |
Number of page(s) | 21 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321489 | |
Published online | 20 June 2014 |
The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS)⋆
An unprecedented view of galaxies and large-scale structure at 0.5 < z < 1.2
1 INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate/via Brera 28, 20122 Milano, Italy
e-mail: luigi.guzzo@brera.inaf.it
2 Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
3 INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF) Milano, via Bassini 15, 20133 Milano, Italy
4 Aix - Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astro-physique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
5 INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, 10025 Pino Torinese, Italy
6 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, 65–1238 Mamalahoa Highway, Kamuela HI 96743, USA
7 Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CPT (Centre de Physique Théorique) UMR 7332, 13288 Marseille, France
8 INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127, Bologna, Italy
9 Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
10 Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK
11 Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, PO Box 23-141, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan
12 INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
13 SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
14 Institute of Physics, Jan Kochanowski University, ul. Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce, Poland
15 Department of Particle and Astrophysical Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, 464-8602 Nagoya, Japan
16 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia – Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
17 INFN, Sezione di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy
18 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
19 Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, 84571 Garching b. München, Germany
20 Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, Orla 171, 30-001 Cracow, Poland
21 National Centre for Nuclear Research, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Poland
22 Universitätssternwarte München, Ludwig-Maximillians Universität, Scheinerstr. 1, 81679 München, Germany
23 INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
24 INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
25 Università degli Studi di Milano, via G. Celoria 16, 20130 Milano, Italy
26 INFN, Sezione di Roma Tre, via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
27 INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
28 Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, 06300 Nice, France
29 Astronomical Observatory of the University of Geneva, ch. d’Ecogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
Received: 16 March 2013
Accepted: 10 March 2014
We describe the construction and general features of VIPERS, the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey. This ESO Large Programme is using the Very Large Telescope with the aim of building a spectroscopic sample of ~ 100 000 galaxies with iAB< 22.5 and 0.5 <z< 1.5. The survey covers a total area of ~ 24 deg2 within the CFHTLS-Wide W1 and W4 fields. VIPERS is designed to address a broad range of problems in large-scale structure and galaxy evolution, thanks to a unique combination of volume (~ 5 × 107h-3 Mpc3) and sampling rate (~ 40%), comparable to state-of-the-art surveys of the local Universe, together with extensive multi-band optical and near-infrared photometry. Here we present the survey design, the selection of the source catalogue and the development of the spectroscopic observations. We discuss in detail the overall selection function that results from the combination of the different constituents of the project. This includes the masks arising from the parent photometric sample and the spectroscopic instrumental footprint, together with the weights needed to account for the sampling and the success rates of the observations. Using the catalogue of 53 608 galaxy redshifts composing the forthcoming VIPERS Public Data Release 1 (PDR-1), we provide a first assessment of the quality of the spectroscopic data. The stellar contamination is found to be only 3.2%, endorsing the quality of the star–galaxy separation process and fully confirming the original estimates based on the VVDS data, which also indicate a galaxy incompleteness from this process of only 1.4%. Using a set of 1215 repeated observations, we estimate an rms redshift error σz/ (1 + z) = 4.7 × 10-4 and calibrate the internal spectral quality grading. Benefiting from the combination of size and detailed sampling of this dataset, we conclude by presenting a map showing in unprecedented detail the large-scale distribution of galaxies between 5 and 8 billion years ago.
Key words: cosmology: observations / large-scale structure of Universe / galaxies: distances and redshifts / galaxies: statistics
Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile, using the Very Large Telescope under programmes 182.A-0886 and partly 070.A-9007. Also based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at TERAPIX and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS. The VIPERS website is http://www.vipers.inaf.it/
© ESO, 2014
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