Ultra-deep Ks-band Imaging of the Hubble Frontier Fields

Abstract

We present an overview of the "KIFF" project, which provides ultra-deep Ks-band imaging of all six of the Hubble Frontier Fields clusters Abell 2744, MACS-0416, Abell S1063, Abell 370, MACS-0717 and MACS-1149. All of these fields have recently been observed with large allocations of Directors' Discretionary Time with the HST and Spitzer telescopes covering 0.4 < lambda < 1.6 microns and 3.6--4.5 microns, respectively. VLT/HAWK-I integrations of the first four fields reach 5-sigma limiting depths of Ks~26.0 (AB, point sources) and have excellent image quality (FWHM ~ 0."4). Shorter Keck/MOSFIRE integrations of the MACS-0717 (MACS-1149) field better observable in the north reach limiting depths Ks=25.5 (25.1) with seeing FWHM ~0."4 (0."5). In all cases the Ks-band mosaics cover the primary cluster and parallel HST/ACS+WFC3 fields. The total area of the Ks-band coverage is 490 arcmin^2. The Ks-band at 2.2 microns crucially fills the gap between the reddest HST filter (1.6 micron ~ H-band) and the IRAC 3.6 micron passband. While reaching the full depths of the space-based imaging is not currently feasible from the ground, the deep Ks-band images provide important constraints on both the redshifts and the stellar population properties of galaxies extending well below the characteristic stellar mass across most of the age of the universe, down to, and including, the redshifts of the targeted galaxy clusters (z < 0.5).

Submitted to ApJS, includes revisions after the first referee report. Reduced mosaics of all six survey fields are provided via the ESO Phase 3 query form at http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase3/news.html#kiff

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