The IMACS Cluster Building Survey. I. Description of the Survey and Analysis Methods

Abstract

The IMACS Cluster Building Survey uses the wide field spectroscopic capabilities of the IMACS spectrograph on the 6.5m Baade Telescope to survey the large-scale environment surrounding rich intermediate-redshift clusters of galaxies. The goal is to understand the processes which may be transforming star-forming field galaxies into quiescent cluster members as groups and individual galaxies fall into the cluster from the surrounding supercluster. This first paper describes the survey: the data taking and reduction methods. We provide new calibrations of star formation rates derived from optical and infrared spectroscopy and photometry. We demonstrate that there is a tight relation between the observed star formation rate per unit B luminosity, and the ratio of the extinctions of the stellar continuum and the optical emission lines. With this, we can obtain accurate extinction-corrected colors of galaxies. Using these colors as well as other spectral measures, we determine new criteria for the existence of ongoing and recent starbursts in galaxies.

References in corpus (6)

• Near-Infrared and Star-forming properties of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Ultraviolet Through Far-Infrared Spatially Resolved Analysis of the Recent Star Formation in M81 (NGC3031)
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: IV. The Log-normal Star Formation History of Galaxies
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: II. Spectral Evolution of Galaxies in the Epoch of Cluster Assembly
• Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Lensed Galaxies at 1<z<3: The Nature of Sources Near the MIPS Confusion Limit
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey. III. The Star Formation Histories of Field Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (18)

• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: IV. The Log-normal Star Formation History of Galaxies
• The Mass-Independence of Specific Star Formation Rates in Galactic Disks
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: II. Spectral Evolution of Galaxies in the Epoch of Cluster Assembly
• Log-normal star formation histories in simulated and observed galaxies
• VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS): Witnessing the Assembly of a Massive Cluster at z~3.3
• PRIMUS: Galaxy Clustering as a Function of Luminosity and Color at 0.2<z<1
• The GOGREEN and GCLASS Surveys: First Data Release
• Hidden Starbursts and Active Galactic Nuclei at 0<z<4 from the Herschel-VVDS-CFHTLS-D1 Field: Inferences on Coevolution and Feedback
• Star Formation Quenching in High-redshift Large-scale Structure: Post-starburst Galaxies in the Cl1604 Supercluster at $z\sim 0.9$
• The Violent Youth of Bright and Massive Cluster Galaxies and their Maturation over 7 Billion Years
• Preprocessing Among the Infalling Galaxy Population of EDisCS Clusters
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey. III. The Star Formation Histories of Field Galaxies
• Demonstrating Diversity in Star Formation Histories with the CSI Survey
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: V. Further Evidence for Starburst Recycling from Quantitative Galaxy Morphologies
• Star Formation In The Cluster Merger DLSCL J0916.2+2953
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). XII. Spatially Resolved Galaxy Star Formation Histories and True Evolutionary Paths at z > 1
• Magellan/M2FS Spectroscopy of Galaxy Clusters: Stellar Population Model and Application to Abell 267
• Low X-Ray Luminosity Galaxy Clusters: Main goals, sample selection, photometric and spectroscopic observations